Oau After 30 Years

The African human rights system has undergone some remarkable developments since the adoption of the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights, the cornerstone of the African human rights system, in June 1981. The year2011 marked the 30th anniversary of the adoption of the African Charter. It also marked 25 years since the African Charter entered into force on 21 October 1986.This book aims to provide reflections on most of the major human rights issues in the past 30 years of the African human rights system in practice and discussion on the future: the African Charter s impact and contribution to the respect, protection and promotion of human rights in Africa; the contemporary challenges faced by the African Human rights system in responding adequately to the demands of rapidly evolving African societies; and how the African human rights system can be strengthened in the future to ensure that the human rights protected in the African Charter, as developed in the jurisprudence of the African Commission since the Commission was inaugurated in 1987, are realised in practice.The chapters in this volume bring together the work of 20 human rights scholars and practitioners, with expertise in human rights in Africa, under the following general themes: rights and duties in the African Charter; rights of the vulnerable under the African system; implementation mechanisms for human rights in Africa; and towards an effective African regional human rights system.

Examines and compares diplomatic practices and normative change in the African Union and ASEAN.

This book investigates the performance of the Organization of African Unity (OAU) since its inception, focusing on four areas of central concern to African states: decolonization, conflict control, development, and human rights. The authors examine the OAU's record against the challenge of apartheid and the OAU's lack of resources and effective sanctions. They make a number of suggestions for enhancing the OAU's future viability and its ability to address the continent's pressing economic and social needs.

Based in Ethiopia, the Africa Union, established in July 2002, is the successor to the Organization of African Unity, created in 1963. The AU aims include promoting democracy, human rights, and sustainable economic development across Africa, especially by increasing foreign investment through the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD).

Our Continent, Our Future presents the emerging African perspective on this complex issue. The authors use as background their own extensive experience and a collection of 30 individual studies, 25 of which were from African economists, to summarize this African perspective and articulate a path for the future. They underscore the need to be sensitive to each country's unique history and current condition. They argue for a broader policy agenda and for a much more active role for the state within what is largely a market economy. Finally, they stress that Africa must, and can, compete in an increasingly globalized world and, perhaps most importantly, that Africans must assume the leading role in defining the continent's development agenda.

Godfrey Mwakikagile looks at the African post-colonial state and the challenges it faces. He contends that it is structurally flawed and does not reflect African realities. It is an oppressive machinery and an apparatus of power to serve the interests of the ruling class and the elite at the expense of ordinary citizens and the masses. And it has retained the institutional structure of the colonial state instead of undergoing fundamental transformation to become truly African. Mwakikagile focuses on a number of countries providing case studies whose relevance is continental in scope. He contends that bad leadership is the biggest problem African countries have faced through the decades and everything else revolves around it. The collapse of a number of African states in the post-colonial era bears testimony to that.