By Dr Bertrand Ramcharan
Seventh Chancellor of the University of Guyana Previously: Professor at the Geneva Graduate Institute, Fellow of Harvard University and Fellow of the LSE.
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Africa will be decisive in shaping the coming international order. This is inevitable, for the reasons adduced in this essay, which draws on a book we recently published, Africa and the Universality of Human Rights (Brill, 2022). Guyana must heed the implications of the strategic importance of Africa when shaping its foreign relations with, and representation in, the continent.
In the coming period, it is estimated that Africa, with the world’s fastest growing population, will reach a continental figure of two billion. Yet, as The Economist reported in its issue of 24th June, 2023, Africa is protesting that it is being short-changed as priorities shift towards Ukraine and in dealing with climate change. There is deep African anger, that the continent has too little say in global institutions such as the Word Bank, the IMF and the UN, and that some of the proposed reforms being discussed currently could again leave Africa in the cold.
As The Economist reported, Macky Sall, the President of Senegal and until recently the chair of the African Union, argues that Africa’s weak representation in international institutions results in the continent having decisions foisted upon it on matters such as climate change and debt: “The G.20 undermines its effectiveness and influence by leaving out such a large proportion of humanity in the global economy,”, he wrote in an op-ed in the French daily, Le Monde.
Africa’s most pressing geopolitical demand is for reform of the UN Security Council. According to The Economist, roughly half of all Security Council meetings discuss Africa. Yet the fifteen-member Security Council has just three rotating seats for African countries. Africa wants two permanent seats and five non-permanent ones on a new 26-member Council. President Macky Sall laments: “The inertia of the Security Council in the fight against terrorism in Africa underlines the failure of the multilateral system.” The Economist commented: “It is high time the continent with the world’s fastest growing population was given its voice.”
We are in an era of contestation by major powers over the fundamental values underpinning the world order, and over the ground rules of international law. It is precisely on these issues that Africa will be decisive, as we shall see presently.
Human dignity and rights are inherent in the African philosophy of the Akan in West Africa, of Ubuntu in Southern Africa, and in Sengor’s philosophy of negritude. Human dignity and rights are central to the jurisprudence of the South African Constitutional Court, of the African Commission and the African Court, on Human and Peoples’ Rights. The African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights has insisted that the right to life is the fulcrum of all other rights. It is non-derogable, and applies at all times.
It is important to be aware of Africa’s contributions to the development of international law. The African anchors of international law and order can help ground and stabilize the world in a time of Sino-American contestation. The continent that is the cradle of humanity, and which, with fifty -four countries, contains a quarter of the Member States of the United Nations, stands geographically at the centre of the world, between the American and Eurasian land-masses. Neither the Americas nor Eurasia can decide on the content of international law without taking due account of the views of Africa.
Africa has taken firm positions in support of the United Nations Charter, the international rule of law, and universal respect for human rights. While adding African insights to the development of international law and engaging in law-making that takes African needs into account, the African Union and sub-regional African institutions have been firmly in support of the UN Charter, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the international rule of law. One sees this in their founding documents and their high-level policy declarations.
In addition to supporting the International Court of Justice with distinguished jurists such as Taslim Olawale Elias, Mohammed Bedjaoui, Keba M’Baye, Abdul Koroma, Abdulqawi Ahmed Yousef and Julia Sebutinde, Africa has the African Court of Justice and Human Rights, the ECOWAS Court of Justice, the East African Court of Justice, the SADC Tribunal, and stellar national courts such as the South African Constitutional Court. The jurisprudence of all of these bodies is firmly grounded in the universality of human rights under international law.
The African commitment to democracy is in evidence in the existence of democracy charters in the African Union, ECOWAS, IGAD, and other sub-regional institutions. The African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights is anchored in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, while adding normative provisions reflective of the African experience, such as recognition of peoples’ rights to existence, peace, environmental security and development.
Africa as a continent, and African States regionally and sub-regionally, subscribe amply and faithfully to the universality of human rights, as encapsulated in the United Nations Charter and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. This is evident in the jurisprudence and practice of the African Union, of sub-regional institutions such as ECOWAS, IGAD, and SADC, in the applicable human rights jurisprudence of the United Nations – of which all African States are Members, and of African human rights institutions such as the African Commission and Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights, and the ECOWAS Court of Justice. African support for the universality of human rights is pronounced and wide-ranging. This may be seen in the Charter of the African Union, the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, and in Democracy charters adopted by the African Union, ECOWAS. SADC and other institutions.
Already in 1961, one could see convincing evidence of Africa’s support for the universality of human rights and the international rule of law in the concluding declaration of the African Conference on the Rule of Law, known as the Law of Lagos. In the Law of Lagos, “The African Conference on the Rule of Law consisting of 194 judges, practising lawyers and teachers of law from 23 African nations as well as 9 countries of other continents, … solemnly “Recognize(d) that the Rule of Law is a dynamic concept which should be employed to safeguard and advance the will of the people and the political rights of the individual and to establish social, economic, educational, and cultural conditions under which the individual may achieve his dignity and realize his legitimate aspirations in all countries, whether dependent or independent.
The Law of Lagos declared: 1. That its principles should apply to every society. That in order to maintain adequately the Rule of Law all Governments should adhere to the principle of democratic representation in their Legislatures; 2. That fundamental human rights, especially the right to personal liberty, should be written and entrenched in the Constitution of all countries and that such personal liberty should not in peacetime be restricted without trial in a Court of Law.”
The Constitutive Act of the African Union, in its Article 3(h) provides a clear mandate to AU organs and institutions to promote and protect human and peoples’ rights on the continent. The Protocol Relating to the Establishment of the Peace and Security Council of the African Union, in its Article 4(c), implores AU Member States to respect the rule of law, fundamental human rights and freedoms, the sanctity of human life and international humanitarian law.
Strategic Plans of the African Union Commission have given it the mandate to achieve good governance, democracy, human rights, rights-based approaches to development, including social, economic, cultural and environmental rights, guided by the following principles:
a. Respect for human rights and democratic principles; b. Respect for the rule of law, fundamental human rights and freedoms, the sanctity of human life and international humanitarian law; c. Interdependence between socio-economic development and the security of peoples and States; d. Universality of rights; e. Gender equality; f. Effective participation of citizens in governance and development; g. Transparency, accountability and fairness; h. Non-discrimination on grounds of race, ethnic group, colour, sex, language, religion, political or any other opinion, national and social origin, fortune, birth or other status; i. Complementarity and subsidiarity amongst AU organs and institutions, Regional Economic Communities (RECs) and Member States.”
While Africa has experienced a large number of conflicts in the post-independence period, due in considerable measure to its colonial legacy and to foreign intervention, the desire for peace may be seen in the existence of conflict prevention mechanisms in the African Union, ECOWAS, IGAD, SADC and other sub-regional institutions. A culture of conflict prevention has, taken roots in the continent, and cooperation with the UN Security Council for the prevention, containment, and resolution of conflicts is a hall-mark of cooperation between Africa and the United Nations.
Africa has elaborated normative and policy documents for advancing disarmament, sustainable development, environmental protection, and for silencing the guns in Africa. To put it in a nutshell, some of the best evidence in support of the international rule of law and the universality of human rights is to be found in the jurisprudence of African regional and sub-regional institutions.
It has not been plain sailing to uphold human rights in practice. One-party states, dictatorships, oppression, injustices, gross violations of human rights have all taken their toll on Africa’s peoples. Yet, the record shows:
The adoption of, and commitment to, democracy charters.
The adoption of continental and regional human rights instruments.
The establishment of continental and regional human rights bodies.
Consistent jurisprudence of continental and regional human rights bodies upholding the norms of international human rights law and explicitly affirming that universal human rights are binding on African Governments.
The insistence of the African Union that its Members would not accept, or recognize, military coups against democratically elected African Governments.
Consistent efforts to build peace in troubled areas on the foundations of human rights and also to prevent conflicts through respecting human rights.
There are fifty-four African States in the United Nations, well over one quarter of the membership of the world body. It is without doubt that the views of African States, peoples, and institutions upholding the universality of human rights and the validity of international law count when it comes to upholding the international rule of law and the tenets of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights world-wide.
In the global contest among today’s major powers, Africa is, and will be, the decisive arbiter of what is right and wrong. For Africa is emerging as a global power in its own rights, a global power of values, grounded in the principles of human dignity, human rights, and the rule of law.
Attention, Guyana !
