Abstract:
During 2011 there were both negative and positive developments in
the human rights work of African sub-regional economic communities.
From the negative perspective, the travails of the Southern Africa
Development Community Tribunal in 2011 stand out as the most
notorious as they brought about a limitation in the effectiveness of this
erstwhile budding human rights regime in Southern Africa. Arguably,
as a consequence of the suspension of the Tribunal, there was very
little human rights activity from Southern Africa to report on. Thus, the
focus in this contribution is squarely on developments that occurred in
the human rights regimes in East Africa and West Africa. Significantly,
there was an increase in human rights litigation activity before the subregional
courts in both regions. Activities in the judicial sector and other
non-juridical human rights activities in the respective regimes of the
East African Community and the Economic Community of West African
States are analysed critically in this contribution. Developments during
2011 demonstrate the growing confidence of actors and institutions in
the human rights regimes of the two sub-regions.
