Human rights: the Commonwealth and the Banjul Charter

The African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights [Banjul Charter 1981] is the latest among other human rights regional instruments, i.e., ACHR 1969 and ECHR1950. While this may be unproblematic, there are contentions that the Banjul Charteris the least effective among other instruments of human rights; it lacks significant influence on the African continent and seems to exist only in theory. The unstable peace in many African States further suggests the ineffectiveness of the Banjul Charter. Given this narrative, this paper presents a two dimensional reaction to the contentions. On one hand, I will show that the Commonwealth’s human rights activities, as evident in its values and principles, could ‘inspire’ the Banjul Charter to make expected influence in harmony with regional standards. On the other hand, I will identify that whereas the Banjul Charter could be below expectations, it is capable of informing the Commonwealth to be more effective in its human rights mandate. The presentation of the two dimensional reaction involves a comparative assessment of the definition, nature/attributes, institutional structure, and implementation mechanism of human rights in the Commonwealth principles on human rights and the Banjul Charter. This comparative assessment would inter alias how the implementation mechanism of the Commonwealth human rights mandate from which the Banjul Charter could take a cue. It would also explore the unique nature of human rights in the context of the Banjul Charter to highlight its capability to informing the Commonwealth to be more effective in its human rights mandate.