Impact of Human Rights Organizations Reports in Shaping African States Foreign Relations (original) (raw)
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Impact of Human Rights Report on African State Foreign Policy
It is notable that Human rights constitute fundamental needs of human beings' survival. The existence of human rights organizations is one of the steps in the right direction to ensure these rights are protected from violation, enhanced, and enshrined in each state's constitutions. The International Human Rights bodies and Local chapters of Human Rights Organizations in different states should promote advocacies of these rights in enhancing coexistence among the citizens themselves, vis-à-vis the citizens and the state. Basing on the divine nature of any state in the field of International Relations and Diplomacy, it is therefore basic that the responsibility of any state can be measurable to the level at which it exercises the practice of human rights. On the basis of the core role of a state to human rights practice, the impact of International Human Rights Organizations' reports can either portray the understanding of a state on the 'coin scale' towards its foreign relations. Using the African states, this paper will address how the reports of International Human Rights Organizations have helped shape their foreign relations.
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The thesis engages in a comparative analysis of the involvement of National Human Rights Institutions (NHRIs) in the UN and the African human rights systems. Thus, the thesis seeks to answer the question: What lessons can be drawn from the system of the involvement of NHRIs in the UN Human rights system to that of the African human rights system? Assuming that the UN system is far more developed and advanced than the latter, the thesis explores to what extent the African system could be adapted to resemble the UN system with regards to NHRIs. The thesis begins with a general discussion on the concept of NHRIs. Much of the first section is devoted to the Paris Principles which are the international Minimum standards of NHRIs. In addition to a discussion on each element of the Paris Principles, this section also describes the various types and forms of NHRIs in the world. The next two sections present an account of the involvement of NHRIs in the UN and AU systems respectively. Questi...
In the last fifteen years or so, millions of African civilians have lost their lives in wars characterized by the proliferation of small arms and extreme levels of violence directed against the civilian population …almost all these conflicts are fuelled by the unregulated international arms trade and the presence of foreign troops and mercenaries. However important also to note is that; the United Nations (UN) System, international law and the African Union have certainly all contributed to the establishment of a human rights system in Africa, which has positively and indispensably impacted on the advancement of human rights and of justice. Whereas the United Nations has tried to put in efforts to promote Human rights through establishment of institutions/commissions like the UNHRC and UN Security Council among others, violation of Human Rights across the globe in particular African states has been consistent. It is however with profound tribute as already sated to acknowledge the fact that the UN has tried to play an enormous role in trying to put to end the scourge of human rights violations not only on African Continent but across the world though due to some unavoidable circumstances some of such efforts have been futile. In this paper therefore, I will try to point out a number of UN roles already played in highlighting the achievements through certain institutions on human Rights, challenges being faced or so far faced and possible solutions to challenges. I will dwell more on human rights promotion efforts by the UN and obstacles being met/faced.
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Recent developments in the field of human rights have led to a renewed interest in promoting human rights internationally. Human rights issues emerge as an undeniable part of international negotiation or diplomacy in practice. Echoing human rights is an integral part of international relations since it helps states seek their national interests and improve the national condition of human rights. Moreover, it is arguably true that human rights diplomacy triggered states to build cooperation. One of the examples is South Africa during the Apartheid regime, which had the poorest record in fulfilling human rights due to human rights violations in terms of discrimination that resulted in conflict among civilians. With approximately more than 10,000 people killed during the liberation from 1985 to 1995, It has become an interesting case since it has been shown that human rights issues played a significant role in South Africa’s diplomatic relations during and post-Apartheid. This regime h...
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More than any other time in the history of the African Union, the past five years have witnessed discord and division between the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights and the states that comprise the AU. Instead of constructive dialogue, confrontation and antagonism have prevailed during the consideration of the Commission’s Activity Reports, provoking adverse decisions that erode the standards in the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights. Drawing in part on the author’s personal empirical observation of the dialogues before AU policy organs, the article endeavours to divulge states’ observations on the content of the Commission’s Activity Report as reflected during Ordinary Sessions of AU policy organs and to evaluate their appropriateness in light of the African regional human rights standards. It identifies that occasionally states conduct diplomacy adverse to human rights by deliberately advocating against the standards elaborated in the African Charter. Often, states use the consideration process of the Commission’s Activity Reports as a platform to control the Commission and censure its decisions rather than support it. Confrontation has been states’ favourite tactic to shield themselves from human rights accusations, reducing the impact of the Commission’s Activity Reports on domestic human rights in Africa.