The Social Science Library » Analysis of Paralysis or Paralysis by Analysis? Implementing Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights under the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights

Analysis of Paralysis or Paralysis by Analysis? Implementing Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights under the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights

Author(s)	Chidi, Anselm Odinkalu
Abstract	Any meaningful discussion of economic, social, and cultural rights under the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights 1 must overcome the triple barriers of pessimism, history, and ideology. The perception of the African regional human rights system generally has been significantly shaped to some degree by and filtered through a pessimism about Africa that often consigns the continent to a fate worse than making peace with both mediocrity and despondency. The treaty framework and institutional arrangements of the African Charter in particular thus have been beset from inception with doubts about their credibility, efficacy, and relevance to the continent. Some early writers and commentators doubted “whether the Charter will ever come into force.” Subsequently, some others have questioned whether the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, the oversight and implementation mechanism created by the Charter, has the “power, resources and willingness” to fulfill its functions. The power of the Commission to consider petitions alleging individual violations of human and peoples’ rights, to provide a remedy for such violations, and to monitor through a public examination of periodic reports state parties’ compliance with Charter obligations have all at different times similarly been called into question. The perception of the African regional system that often is conveyed in much of the available literature is something of a juridical misfit, with a treaty basis that is dangerously inadequate and an institutional mechanism liable, ironically, to be slated as errant when it pushes the envelope of interpretation positively.
IssueNo	2
Pages	308-326
Article	Access to Article
Source	Human Rights Quarterly
VolumeNo	23
PubDate	May2001
ISBN_ISSN	0275-0392
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Analysis of Paralysis or Paralysis by Analysis? Implementing Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights under the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights

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