A covenant of compassion: African humanism and the rights of solidarity in the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights

Benjamin Elias Winks

Law Clerk, Constitutional Court of South Africa; Visiting Lecturer, University of Johannesburg, South Africa

SUMMARY

South Africa's relatively peaceful transition from apartheid to democracy would not have been possible without the prevalence of a spirit of solidarity (ubuntu), not only within South Africa but across the continent, since it is largely due to African solidarity with the struggle against apartheid that an enabling environment for negotiation could be created. Therefore, the importance of including the unique and unprecedented solidarity rights of peoples in the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights cannot be emphasised enough. The rights of peoples - to existence, equality, self-determination, sovereignty over natural resources, peace and security, development and a satisfactory environment - were included in the African Charter for historical and philosophical reasons rooted uniquely in the African experience. The recognition of these rights has been resisted in other parts of the world along the lines of ideological division drawn during the Cold War. Solidarity rights, founded on the philosophy of African humanism, did not fit into the Cold War jurisprudential dichotomy, which featured, at the one extreme, the Western emphasis on liberty, rights and competition and, at the other extreme, the Eastern emphasis on equality, duties and compulsion. The solidarity rights rather represented an African emphasis on fraternity, reciprocity and compassion. African humanism has been applied in practice as a viable and valuable legal philosophy, particularly by the Constitutional Court of South Africa. Solidarity rights in the African Charter are similarly applicable as viable and valuable legal constructs, and therefore their precise contents and consequences may and must be explored through practical enforcement.

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* LLB (Johannesburg), LLM (Leiden); ben.winks@gmail.com. This paper was prepared for presentation at the conference 'Thirty years of the African Charter: Looking forward while looking back', hosted by the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights and the Centre for Human Rights, University of Pretoria, on 11 July 2011. It has since been revised and expanded, with a great debt of gratitude owed to Dr Nyoko Muvangua and Mr Tor Krever for their helpful comments.
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4 S v Makwanyane & Another 1995 3 SA 391 (CC) (Makwanyane).
5 Makwanyane (n 4 above) paras 218 & 226.
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10 Art 20(1) African Charter.
11 Art 20(3) African Charter.
12 Art 30 African Charter.
13 Resolution 217(III): International Bill of Human Rights - Part A: Universal Declaration of Human Rights, United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) 10 December 1948.         [ Links ]
14 In art 2 of ICCPR, each state party undertakes 'to respect and to ensure to all individuals within its territory and subject to its jurisdiction the rights recognised in the present Covenant'.
15 In art 2 of ICESCR, each state party undertakes 'to take steps ... to the maximum of its available resources, with a view to achieving progressively the full realisation of the rights recognised in the present Covenant'.
16 Art 2(1) ICCPR; art 1(1) ICESCR.
17 Art 1(2) ICCPR; art 1(2) ICESCR.
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20 Arts 1-4 Algiers Declaration.
21 Arts 5-7 Algiers Declaration.
22 Arts 8-12 Algiers Declaration.
23 Arts 13-15 Algiers Declaration.
24 Arts 16-18 Algiers Declaration.
25 Arts 19-21 Algiers Declaration.
26 Art 12 Algiers Declaration; see also arts 18 & 21.
27 Art 22 Algiers Declaration.
28 Art 30 Algiers Declaration.
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31 Vasak (n 29 above) 29.
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42 Art 2(1)(b) OAU Charter.
43 Art 3(a) Constitutive Act of the African Union, 11 July 2000 (AU Constitutive Act).
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55 Makwanyane (n 4 above) para 250.
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61 Arts 27-29 African Charter.
62 See the minority judgment of Ngcobo J in Bhe & Others v Khayelitsha Magistrate & Others 2005 1 SA 580 (CC) paras 163 & 166, where he explicitly links ubuntu to the duties in the African Charter. See also Makwanyane (n 4 above) (minority judgment of Mahomed J) para 263; McBride (n 59 above) (minority judgment of Mogoeng J) para 218. See also N Ahiauzu 'Ubuntu and the obligation to obey the law' (2006) 37 Cambrian Law Review 17.         [ Links ]
63 Kiwanuka (n 35 above) 82.
64 As quoted in Alston (n 30 above) 280-281.
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66 Crawford (n 36 above) 164.
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69 See, eg, the speech by the architect of apartheid, HF Verwoerd, in which he heralded South Africa as 'unequivocally the symbol of anti-communism in Africa [and] a bastion in Africa for Christianity and the Western world', quoted in AM Chambati 'South Africa's foreign policy and the world' (1973) 3 Zambezia 92.
70 See Meredith (n 8 above) 316-319.
71 NR Mandela 'Nobel lecture', Oslo, Norway, 10 December 1993, http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1993/mandela-lecture.html (accessed 16 June 2011).
72 Port Elizabeth Municipality v Various Occupiers 2005 1 SA 217 (CC) para 37.
73 See B Tyson & AA Said 'Human rights: A forgotten victim of the Cold War' (1993) 15 Human Rights Quarterly 589 594-596.
74 Dikoko v Mokhatla (n 6 above) (minority judgment of Sachs J) para 113 (my emphasis).
75 See eg Protocol on Explosive Remnants of War (Protocol V to the 1980 Convention) 28 November 2003.
76 Resolution 39/11: Declaration on the Right of Peoples to Peace, UNGA (by vote of 92-0-34) 1984, http://www.un.org/depts/dhl/resguide/r39.htm (accessed 16 June 2011).
77 Resolution 40/11: Right of Peoples to Peace, UNGA (by vote of 109-0-29) 1985, http://www.un.org/depts/dhl/resguide/r40.htm (accessed 16 June 2011).
78 Resolution 41/10: Right of Peoples to Peace, UNGA (by vote of 104-0-33) 1986, http://www.un.org/depts/dhl/resguide/r41.htm (accessed 16 June 2011).
79 Resolution 43/22: Right of Peoples to Peace, UNGA (by vote of 118-0-29) 1988, http://www.un.org/Depts/dhl/resguide/r43.htm (accessed 16 June 2011).
80 Resolution 45/14: Implementation of the Declaration on the Right of Peoples to Peace, UNGA (by consensus) 1990, http://www.un.org/Depts/dhl/resguide/r45. htm (accessed 16 June 2011).
81 Resolution 57/216: Promotion of the Right of Peoples to Peace, UNGA (by vote of 116-53-14) 2002, http://www.un.org/depts/dhl/resguide/r57.htm (accessed 16 June 2011).
82 Resolution 41/128: Declaration on the Right to Development, UNGA (by vote of 1461-8) 1986, available at http://www.un.org/depts/dhl/resguide/r41.htm (accessed 16 June 2011).
83 Resolution 45/97: The Right to Development, UNGA (by consensus) 14 December 1990, http://www.un.org/Depts/dhl/resguide/r45.htm (accessed 16 June 2011).
84 Resolution 56/150: The Right to Development, UNGA (by vote of 123-4-44) 19 December 2001, http://www.un.org/depts/dhl/resguide/r56.htm (accessed 16 June 2011).
85 Mandela (n 71 above).
86 See Yogogombaye v Senegal, African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights, Application 001/2008, Judgment 15 December 2009.
87 See Democratic Republic of the Congo v Burundi, Rwanda & Uganda (2004) AHRLR 19 (ACHPR 2003); Social and Economic Rights Action Centre (SERAC) & Another v Nigeria (2001) AHRLR 60 (ACHPR 2001); Centre for Minority Rights Development & Others v Kenya (2009) AHRLR 75 (ACHPR 2009) (Endorois case); Gunme & Others v Cameroon (2009) AHRLR 9 (ACHPR 2009); jawara v The Gambia (2000) AHRLR 107 (ACHPR 2000); Malawi African Association & Others v Mauritania (2000) AHRLR 149 (ACHPR 2000); Katangese Peoples' Congress vZaire (2000) AHRLR 72 (ACHPR 1995).
88 See JC Nwobike 'The African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights and the demystification of second and third generation rights under the African Charter: Social and Economic Rights Action Centre (SERAC) and the Centre for Economic and Social Rights (CESR) v Nigeria' (2004-2005) 1 African journal of Legal Studies 143144.