The domestic effect of the East African Community’s human rights practice

Abstract

The Treaty for the Establishment of the East African Community (EAC Treaty) outlines good governance, democracy and the promotion and protection of human rights as part of the EAC’s fundamental and operational principles. The East African Court of Justice, (EACJ) has authoritatively ruled that the observance of human rights is indispensable to the achievement of the Community’s integration objectives. Given that the ultimate beneficiaries of EAC’s integration process are the citizens and residents of the respective Partner States, it follows that any measures taken under the EAC’s framework for the promotion and protection of human rights should radiate from the sub-__regional to the domestic sphere and impact the human rights practices in the Partner States for the benefit of their citizens and residents. This thesis pursues this proposition by investigating how the measures taken by the EAC at the sub-__regional level to promote and protect human rights have influenced the development, interpretation or application of law and policy, or the practices of state and non-__state actors within the domestic sphere of each of the Partner States. Inclusive in this is an evaluation of the factors that affect how these measures are received and implemented within the respective national frameworks. The overall finding of this research is that the EAC’s measures for the promotion and protection of human rights have influenced development of national law and policy, as well as national state and non-__state actors. However, this influence has been limited in terms of scale and spread. This is attributable to a number of factors, including poor linkages and coordination between sub-__regional and national level institutions and actors, low prioritisation of human rights by the EAC Partner States as well as limited engagement with the EAC human rights framework by national level human rights workers and EAC citizens and residents. The thesis makes a number of targeted proposals on how these challenges can be surmounted in order to enhance the domestic effect of the EAC’s human rights measures within the Partner States’ legal and policy framework.