"While much of the emphasis in the West has been in promoting civil and political rights, the action plan for human rights and development in Africa must take on a different look. Africa's recovery calls for the juxtaposition of both political and econ omic rights because in most countries, hunger and diseases kill even more than guns do."
--Brendalyn Ambrose, author, Democratization and the Protection of Human Rights in Africa: Problems and Prospects (1995)
The traditional human rights emphasis in the West has been on the protection of civil and political rights--to the exclusion of the rights ofAfrica (Shivji 1989) is a short but challenging critique of "human rights talk" by a law professor and Head of the Department of Legal Theory in the University of Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania. African and non-African scholars tackle a broad range of human rights issues in the twelve essays published in Emerging Human Rights: The African Politi cal Economy Context (Shepherd and Anikpo 1990). The articles in Human Rights and Development in Africa (Welch and Meltzer 1984) are noteworthy for the attention they give to the human rights situation in the Islamic world and to regional initia tives on human rights in Africa (e.g., the Banjul Charter on Human and People's Rights). Two other collections of essays--most of them by Western academics--are: Human Rights and Governance in Africa (Cohen et al. 1993) and Human Rights in Afric a: Cross-Cultural Perspectives (An-Na'im and Deng 1990).
In Human Rights in Commonwealth Africa (Howard 1986) Rhoda Howard focuses attention on the human rights situation in the nine independent countries of Africa that "at least in their ideals, resemble Western democracies." The human rights debate in North Africa (and in the broader Arab world) is the subject of two studies: Arab Voices: The Human Rights Debate in the Middle East (Dwyer 1991)--covering Morocco, Egypt, and Tunisia, and Islam and Human Rights: Tradition and Politics (Ma yer 1991).
A handy reference collection of human rights documents of African origin and concern is TAfrica (Shivji 1989) is a short but challenging critique of "human rights talk" by a law professor and Head of the Department of Legal Theory in the Univers ity of Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania. African and non-African scholars tackle a broad range of human rights issues in the twelve essays published in Emerging Human Rights: The African Political Economy Context (Shepherd and Anikpo 1990). The articles in Human Rights and Development in Africa (Welch and Meltzer 1984) are noteworthy for the attention they give to the human rights situation in the Islamic world and to regional initiatives on human rights in Africa (e.g., the Banjul Charter on Human a nd People's Rights). Two other collections of essays--most of them by Western academics--are: Human Rights and Governance in Africa (Cohen et al. 1993) and Human Rights in Africa: Cross-Cultural Perspectives (An-Na'im and Deng 1990).
In Human Rights in Commonwealth Africa (Howard 1986) Rhoda Howard focuses attention on the human rights situation in the nine independent countries of Africa that "at least in their ideals, resemble Western democracies." The human rights debate in North Africa (and in the broader Arab world) is the subject of two studies: Arab Voices: The Human Rights Debate in the Middle East (Dwyer 1991)--covering Morocco, Egypt, and Tunisia, and Islam and Human Rights: Tradition and Politics (Ma yer 1991).
A handy reference collection of human rights documents of African origin and concern is The International Law of Human Rights in Africa: Basic Documents and Annotated Bibliography (Hamalengwa et al. 1988). Compiler Munyonzwe Hamalengwa produced a shorter (unannotated) bibliography of professional literature on human rights in Africa in Vol. 8, No. 1 (February 1986) of Human Rights Quarterly: "The Human Rights Literature on Africa: A Bibliography" (Cobbah and Hamalengwa 1986).
The Regional Centre for Africa of the Inter Press Service Third World News Agency and the African Centre for Democracy and Human Rights (see below) both publish regular reports on human rights-related issues in Africa.
Other organizations in Africa that monitor human rights developments on a regular basis are listed and described in National Human Rights Institutions in Africa (Carver and Hunt 1991), African Directory: Human Rights Organizations in Sub-Saha ran Africa 1996 (Human Rights Internet and Netherlands Institute of Human Rights 1996), and in the HRI Reporter published quarterly by Human Rights Internet (Ottawa).
The Regional Centre for Africa of the Inter Press Service News Agency publishes Human Rights Bulletin, a monthly bulletin with news reports on human rights situations (broadly defined) throughout Africa. Inter Press Service (IPS) is the w
orld's leading alternative news agency, with a regional presence in Africa, Asia, Latin America, North America, the Caribbean, and Europe. IPS specializes in "in-depth and contextualized coverage of international processes, events, and issues that affect
the Third World with particular emphasis on grassroots actors in development."
Contact: IPS Africa Headquarters, 127 Union Ave., P.O. Box 6050, Harare, Zimbabwe. E-mail: ipshre@gn.apc.org.
The African Centre for Democracy and Human Rights Studies publishes a quarterly newsletter (in English and French), African Human Rights Newsletter, with news reports, commentary and analysis, lists of resources, and a calendar of events
related to human rights in Africa. A particularly useful feature of the newsletter is its regular survey of the mission and activities of African nongovernmental organizations working in the field of human rights. The African Centre also publishes a serie
s of "Occasional Papers" on human rights-related topics.
Contact: African Centre for Democracy and Human Rights Studies, Kairaba Ave., K.S.M.D., The Gambia.
Following ratification of the document by a simply majority of OAU Member States the African Charter came into force on October 21, 1986.
(See Hamalengwa 1988 for the full text of the Charter.)