The African regional human rights system and HIV-related expermentation : implications of Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum v Zimbabwe

Abstract

The article investigates the protection by the African regional human rights system of participants in HIV-related human experimentation. It assesses the scope of the protection afforded by the system, and draws upon the jurisprudence of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights in the communication of Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum v Zimbabwe in order to argue that a failure on the part of African states to act to prevent the abuse of research participants will render those states liable for a finding by the African Commission of a violation of their obligations under regional human rights law.