African disunity : comparing human rights law and practice of North and South African states

Abstract

Within the domain of respect for human and peoples’ rights by African states there has been, until recently, little unity of purpose. The common standards that African states have maintained in their laws and practices regarding human rights have been their willingness to subscribe formally to international and regional norms, while at the same time, to violate those undertakings with near impunity. When the Protocol to the African Charter on the Establishment of the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights (Protocol) comes into force, it will provide for an African court having the responsibility to hold states to their obligations and to establish continent-wide standards. Thus, within the domain of human rights, the states will take a step closer to realizing common norms worthy of a continent which has, as its fundamental underpinning and ethos, the notion of African unity.