Fact-finding missions or omissions: a critical analysis of the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights and lessons to be learnt from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights

Abstract

"Therefore, the aims of the study are to explore the origin, nature and purpose of fact-finding missions, to explore what is currently on the ground, to expose the inherent deficiencies in the current practice, which compromise the missions' capacity to promote and protect human and peoples' rights. Having identified the shortcomings, lessons and inspiration will be drawn from the practice and rules of procedure of other regional and international treaty monitoring bodies, particularly the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR). The starting point of the analysis shall be to identify the various fact-finding related issues that arose in the response of the Government of Zimbabwe to the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights (ACHPR) report. A survey of the reaction and response of other countries in which similar fact-finding missions were conducted, shall be carried out to gauge the consistence or otherwise in the ACHPR's practice. It shall be strongly suggested that the ACHPR should substantially borrow from other human rights systems, if necessary. After closely observing these issues, the study will come up with a position and firm recommendations to the ACHPR in terms of which its practice can be revamped for the achievement of an effective and progressive promotion and protection of human and peoples' rights as contemplated by the African Charter. ... This study has four chapters. Chapter one constitutes introductory remarks putting the study into context and the justification thereof. Chapter two explores the nature, origin, forms and importance of fact-finding in human rights protection. It searches for the underlying principles governing credible and plausible fact-finding. Chapter three analyses the ACHPR fact-finding practice to see what is there and critically compare it to the IACHR, UN and ILO practice. It aims at demonstrating the strengths and weaknesses of the African system. Chapter four revisits the weaknesses unearthed in chapter three and proposes recommendations for overall improvement. The study concludes by soliciting draft rules of procedure from the general principles explored in chapter two, combined with lessons learnt from other systems in chapter three. The model fact-finding rules of procedures are marked Annexure A at the end of this work." -- Introduction.