INTERNATIONAL LEGAL REPOSITORY
AFRICAN TREATIES
| DOCUMENT |
| African Charter on Human and People's Rights |
| DATE OF ENTRY INTO FORCE/SIGNATURE |
| Entered into force on October 21, 1986 |
| RATIFICATION/ACCEPTANCE/APPROVAL/ACCESSION/SUCCESSION |
| Ratified by all 53 OAU member states: Algeria, Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Congo (Republic of the), Côte d'Ivoire, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Djibouti, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic, Sao Tome and Principe, Senegal, Seychelles, Somalia, South Africa, Sierra Leone, Sudan, Swaziland, Tanzania (United Republic of), Togo, Tunisia, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe |
| HIGHLIGHTS ON RELEVANT ARTICLES |
| Articles: 5, 18.3 |
| NOTES |
| The African Charter was adopted in 1981 by the Organisation of African Unity, renamed, since 2002, the African Union. It is a regional human rights instrument specifically designed to reflect the history, values, traditions and development of Africa. Accordingly, the Charter seeks to combine African values with international norms by not only promoting internationally recognized individual rights, but also by proclaiming collective rights and individual duties. These include the duty of individuals to their family, community and state. The uniqueness of the charter lays in the originality of its normative content. Indeed, this charter has unusual features, in the sense that it covers economic, social and cultural rights as well as civil and political rights, which actually distinguishes it from both the European and the American Conventions which follow a more traditional methodology. Furthermore, the African Charter covers third generation rights, and gives due importance to the assumption that a person has duties as well as rights in the community. |
| DOCUMENT |
| The African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child |
| DATE OF ENTRY INTO FORCE/SIGNATURE |
| Entered into force on November 29, 1999 |
| RATIFICATION/ACCEPTANCE/APPROVAL/ACCESSION/SUCCESSION |
| Algeria, Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Chad, Comoros, Congo (Republic of the), Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Kenya, Lesotho, Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic, Senegal, Seychelles, South Africa, Sierra Leone, Tanzania (United Republic of), Togo, Uganda, Zimbabwe |
| HIGHLIGHTS ON RELEVANT ARTICLES |
| Articles: 2, 4.1, 15, 16, 24 (d), 27, 29 |
| NOTES |
| Less than a year after the adoption of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, the African Charter on the rights and Welfare of the Child was adopted by the twenty-sixth Assembly of Heads of State and Government of the OAU (the Organization of African Unity), in July 1990 in Nairobi, Kenya. One of the reasons for a separate African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child was that during the drafting process of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) Africa was underrepresented. Only Algeria, Morocco, Senegal and Egypt participated meaningfully. Furthermore specific provisions on aspects peculiar to Africa were not sufficiently addressed in the UN instrument. Some of the peculiarities of the African situation omitted from the CRC were identified as: the situation of children living under the then prevailing apartheid regime in South Africa, practices and attitudes having a negative effect on the life of the girl child and widespread practices in African society such as female genital mutilation. Other issues not considered by the CRC were problems of displaced persons arising from internal conflicts, the African conception of the community's responsibilities and duties and the particularly difficult socio-economic conditions of the continent. The African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child was modelled on the UN CRC and the two instruments share the key principles of non discrimination, the best interests of the child, participation of children, the survival and development of the child and the evolving capacities of the child. |
| DOCUMENT |
| Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa |
| DATE OF ENTRY INTO FORCE/SIGNATURE |
| Entered into force on November 25, 2005 |
| RATIFICATION/ACCEPTANCE/APPROVAL/ACCESSION/SUCCESSION |
| Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape-Verde, Comoros, Djibouti, Gambia, Libya, Lesotho, Mali, Malawi, Mauritania, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Seychelles, South Africa, Tanzania, Togo, Zambia |
| HIGHLIGHTS ON RELEVANT ARTICLES |
| Articles: 1, 2, 3, 4, 11.3, 13.g), 13.m) |
| NOTES |
| The protocol is particularly helpful in protecting women in Africa that endure human rights violations in their homes and in the public sphere, perpetuating their inequality and putting them at risk for poverty and disease, including HIV/AIDS. The protocol protects a broad range of women's human rights, reinforcing international law on women's equality. Among other things, it calls on governments to: - enact protections against and remedies for sexual harassment in the workplace and schools; - promote women's sexual and reproductive health, including protection against HIV/AIDS; - enact and enforce laws prohibiting violence against women, including forced sex, whether it occurs in public or private; - prevent and condemn trafficking in women, prosecute the perpetrators of such trafficking and protect those women most at risk; - promote the right to equal remuneration for women and men for work of equal value; - ensure increased participation of women in peace processes and post-conflict reconstruction and rehabilitation, as well as to reduce military spending in favor of social development and the promotion of women; - protect women's reproductive rights by permitting abortion in cases of rape, incest, and where the continued pregnancy endangers the mother's mental and physical health or the life of the mother or fetus; - promote women's access to and control over land and other productive resources and to inherit equitable shares of property from their husbands and parents; - grant women and men rights to equitable sharing of joint property upon separation, divorce, or annulment of marriage; - establish protection and social insurance systems for women working in the informal sector, and recognize the economic value of women's work in the home; - ensure that the minimum age of marriage for girls is eighteen. |
