The African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights (also known as the Banjul Charter) is an

international human rights instrument International human rights instruments are the treaties and other international texts that serve as legal sources for international human rights law and the protection of human rights in general. There are many varying types, but most can be clas ...

that is intended to promote and protect

human rights Human rights are universally recognized Morality, moral principles or Social norm, norms that establish standards of human behavior and are often protected by both Municipal law, national and international laws. These rights are considered ...

and basic freedoms in the

African continent Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...

. It emerged under the aegis of the

Organisation of African Unity The Organisation of African Unity (OAU; , OUA) was an African intergovernmental organization established on 25 May 1963 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, with 33 signatory governments. Some of the key aims of the OAU were to encourage political and ec ...

(since replaced by the

African Union The African Union (AU) is a continental union of 55 member states located on the continent of Africa. The AU was announced in the Sirte Declaration in Sirte, Libya, on 9 September 1999, calling for the establishment of the African Union. The b ...

) which, at its 1979 Assembly of Heads of State and Government, adopted a resolution calling for the creation of a committee of experts to draft a continent-wide human rights instrument, similar to those that already existed in

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

(

European Convention on Human Rights The European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR; formally the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms) is a Supranational law, supranational convention to protect human rights and political freedoms in Europe. Draf ...

) and the

Americas The Americas, sometimes collectively called America, are a landmass comprising the totality of North America and South America.''Webster's New World College Dictionary'', 2010 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Cleveland, Ohio. When viewed as a sing ...

(

American Convention on Human Rights The American Convention on Human Rights (ACHR), also known as the Pact of San José or by its Spanish name used in most of the signatory nations, ''Convención Americana sobre Derechos Humanos'', is an international human rights instrument. It was ...

). This committee was duly set up, and it produced a draft that was unanimously approved at the OAU's 18th Assembly held in June 1981, in

Nairobi Nairobi is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Kenya. The city lies in the south-central part of Kenya, at an elevation of . The name is derived from the Maasai language, Maasai phrase , which translates to 'place of cool waters', a ...

Kenya Kenya, officially the Republic of Kenya, is a country located in East Africa. With an estimated population of more than 52.4 million as of mid-2024, Kenya is the 27th-most-populous country in the world and the 7th most populous in Africa. ...

. Pursuant to its Article 63 (whereby it was to "come into force three months after the reception by the Secretary General of the instruments of ratification or adherence of a simple majority" of the OAU's member states), the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights came into effect on 21 October 1986– in honour of which 21 October was declared "African Human Rights Day". Oversight and interpretation of the Charter is the task of the

African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights The African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights (ACHPR) is a quasi-judicial body tasked with promoting and protecting human rights and collective (peoples') rights throughout the African continent as well as interpreting the African Char ...

, which was set up on November 2, 1987 in

Addis Ababa Addis Ababa (; ,) is the capital city of Ethiopia, as well as the regional state of Oromia. With an estimated population of 2,739,551 inhabitants as of the 2007 census, it is the largest city in the country and the List of cities in Africa b ...

(PM Ebbaa.A),

Ethiopia Ethiopia, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country located in the Horn of Africa region of East Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the north, Djibouti to the northeast, Somalia to the east, Ken ...

and is now headquartered in

Banjul Banjul (, (US) and ), officially the City of Banjul, is the capital city of The Gambia. It is the centre of the eponymous administrative division which is home to an estimated 400,000 residents, making it The Gambia's largest and most densely ...

Gambia The Gambia, officially the Republic of The Gambia, is a country in West Africa. Geographically, The Gambia is the List of African countries by area, smallest country in continental Africa; it is surrounded by Senegal on all sides except for ...

. A protocol to the Charter was subsequently adopted in 1998 whereby an

African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights The African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights, also known simply as the African Court, is an international court established by member states of the African Union (AU) to implement provisions of the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Right ...

was to be created. The protocol came into effect on 25 January 2004. In July 2004, the AU Assembly decided that the ACHP would be incorporated into the

African Court of Justice The Court of Justice of the African Union was originally intended to be the "principal judicial organ" of the African Union ( Protocol of the Court of Justice of the African Union, Article 2.2) with authority to rule on disputes over interpretatio ...

. In July 2005, the AU Assembly then decided that the ACHP should be operationalised despite the fact that the protocol establishing the African Court of Justice had not yet come into effect. Accordingly, th
Eighth Ordinary Session
of the Executive Council of the

meeting in Khartoum, Sudan, on 22 January 2006, elected the first judges of the

. The relationship between the newly created Court and the commission is yet to be determined. As of 2019, 53 states have ratified the Charter.

Content

The African Charter on Human and People's Rights includes preamble, 3 parts, 4 chapters, and 63 articles. The Charter established a regional human rights system for Africa. The Charter shares many features with other regional instruments, but also has notable unique characteristics concerning the norms it recognizes and also its supervisory mechanism.Christof Heyns, the essentials of...Human Rights, 2005 The preamble commits to the elimination of Zionism, which it compares with

colonialism Colonialism is the control of another territory, natural resources and people by a foreign group. Colonizers control the political and tribal power of the colonised territory. While frequently an Imperialism, imperialist project, colonialism c ...

and

apartheid Apartheid ( , especially South African English: , ; , ) was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. It was characterised by an ...

, causing

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

to qualify its 1996 accession with the reservation that the Charter fall in line with the UN's resolutions "regarding the characterization of Zionism."

Norms contained in the Charter

Civil and political rights

The Charter recognizes most of what are regarded universally accepted civil and political rights. The civil and political rights recognized in the Charter include the right to

freedom from discrimination The right to freedom from discrimination is internationally recognised as a human right and enshrines the principle of egalitarianism. The right to freedom from discrimination is recognised in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and enshrined ...

(Article 2 and 18(3)), equality (Article 3), life and personal integrity (Article 4), dignity (Article 5), freedom from slavery (Article 5), freedom from cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment (Article 5), rights to due process concerning arrest and detention (Article 6), the

right to a fair trial A fair trial is a trial which is "conducted fairly, justly, and with procedural regularity by an impartial judge". Various rights associated with a fair trial are explicitly proclaimed in Article 10 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, th ...

(Article 7 and 25),

freedom of religion Freedom of religion or religious liberty, also known as freedom of religion or belief (FoRB), is a principle that supports the freedom of an individual or community, in public or private, to manifest religion or belief in teaching, practice ...

(Article 8), freedom of information and expression (Article 9),

freedom of association Freedom of association encompasses both an individual's right to join or leave groups voluntarily, the right of the group to take collective action to pursue the interests of its members, and the right of an association to accept or decline membe ...

(Article 10),

freedom of assembly Freedom of assembly, sometimes used interchangeably with the freedom of association, is the individual right or ability of individuals to peaceably assemble and collectively express, promote, pursue, and defend their ideas. The right to free ...

(Article 11),

freedom of movement Freedom of movement, mobility rights, or the right to travel is a human rights concept encompassing the right of individuals to travel from place to place within the territory of a country,Jérémiee Gilbert, ''Nomadic Peoples and Human Rights'' ...

(Article 12), freedom to

political participation Citizen participation or public participation in social science refers to different mechanisms for the public to express opinions—and ideally exert influence—regarding political, economic, management or other social decisions. Participato ...

(Article 13), the

right to property The right to property, or the right to own property (cf. ownership), is often classified as a human right for natural persons regarding their possessions. A general recognition of a right to private property is found more rarely and is typicall ...

(Article 14), and the

right to resist The right to resist is a nearly universally acknowledged human right, although its scope and content are controversial. The right to resist, depending on how it is defined, can take the form of civil disobedience or armed resistance against a t ...

(Article 20). Some human rights scholars however consider the Charter's coverage of other civil and political rights to be inadequate. For example, the right to privacy or a right against forced or compulsory labour are not explicitly recognised. The provisions concerning fair trial and political participation are considered incomplete by international standards.

Economic, social and cultural rights

The Charter also recognises certain

economic, social and cultural rights Economic, social and cultural rights (ESCR) are Socioeconomics, socio-economic human rights, such as the right to education, right to housing, right to an adequate standard of living, right to health, victims' rights and the right to science and ...

, and overall the Charter is considered to place considerable emphasis on these rights. The Charter recognises

right to work The right to work is the concept that people have a human right to work, or to engage in productive employment, and should not be prevented from doing so. The right to work, enshrined in the United Nations 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Ri ...

(Article 15), the

right to health The right to health is the economic, social and cultural economic, social, and cultural right to a universal minimum standard of health to which all individuals are entitled. The concept of a right to health has been enumerated in international a ...

(Article 16), and the

right to education The right to education has been recognized as a human rights, human right in a number of international conventions, including the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights which recognizes a right to free education, free, pr ...

(Article 17). Through a decision by the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights, SERAC v Nigeria (2001), the Charter is also understood to include a

right to housing The right to housing (occasionally right to shelter) is the economic, social and cultural right to adequate house, housing and shelter (building), shelter. It is recognized in some Economic, social and cultural rights#National constitutions, nat ...

and a

right to food The right to food, and its variations, is a human right protecting the right of people to feed themselves in dignity, implying that sufficient food is available, that people have the means to access it, and that it adequately meets the individua ...

as "implicit" in the Charter, particularly in light of its provisions on the

right to life The right to life is the belief that a human (or other animal) has the right to live and, in particular, should not be killed by another entity. The concept of a right to life arises in debates on issues including: capital punishment, with some ...

(Art. 4),

(Art. 16) and to development (Art. 22).

Peoples' rights and group rights

In addition to recognising the individual rights mentioned above the Charter also recognises collective or

group rights Individual rights, also known as natural rights, are rights held by individuals by virtue of being human. Some theists believe individual rights are bestowed by God. An individual right is a moral claim to freedom of action. Group rights, also k ...

, or peoples' rights and third-generation human rights. As such the Charter recognises group rights to a degree not matched by the European or Inter-American regional human rights instruments. The Charter awards the family protection by the state (Article 18), while "peoples" have the right to equality (Article 19), the

right to self-determination Self-determination refers to a people's right to form its own political entity, and internal self-determination is the right to representative government with full suffrage. Self-determination is a cardinal principle in modern international l ...

(Article 20), to freely dispose of their wealth and

natural resource Natural resources are resources that are drawn from nature and used with few modifications. This includes the sources of valued characteristics such as commercial and industrial use, aesthetic value, scientific interest, and cultural value. ...

s (Article 21), the

right to development The right to development is a human right that recognizes every human right for constant improvement of well-being. It was recognized by the United Nation as an international human right in 1986. History The right to development was debated fo ...

(Article 22), the right to peace and security (Article 23) and "a generally satisfactory environment" (Article 24).

Duties

The Charter not only awards rights to individuals and peoples, but also includes

duties A duty (from "due" meaning "that which is owing"; , past participle of ; , whence "debt") is a commitment or expectation to perform some action in general or if certain circumstances arise. A duty may arise from a system of ethics or morality, e ...

incumbent upon them. These duties are contained in Article 29 and are as follows: * The duty to preserve the harmonious development of the family. * To serve the national community by placing both physical and intellectual abilities at its service. * Not to compromise the security of the State. * To preserve and strengthen social and national solidarity. * To preserve and strengthen national independence and the territorial integrity of one's country and to contribute to its defence. * To work to the best of one's abilities and competence and to pay taxes in the interest of society. * To preserve and strengthen positive African cultural values and in general to contribute to the promotion of the moral

well-being Well-being is what is Intrinsic value (ethics), ultimately good for a person. Also called "welfare" and "quality of life", it is a measure of how well life is going for someone. It is a central goal of many individual and societal endeavors. ...

of society. * To contribute to the best of one's abilities to the promotion and achievement of African unity.

References

External links

African Charter on Human and Peoples' RightsAfrican Commission on Human and Peoples' RightsDecisions of the Sixth Ordinary Session of the Executive Council
{{Authority control African Union Human rights instruments African Union treaties Treaties concluded in 1981 Treaties entered into force in 1986 Treaties of Algeria Treaties of the People's Republic of Angola Treaties of the People's Republic of Benin Treaties of Botswana Treaties of Burkina Faso Treaties of Burundi Treaties of Cameroon Treaties of Cape Verde Treaties of the Central African Republic Treaties of Chad Treaties of the Comoros Treaties of the Republic of the Congo Treaties of Ivory Coast Treaties of Zaire Treaties of Djibouti Treaties of Egypt Treaties of Equatorial Guinea Treaties of Eritrea Treaties of Ethiopia Treaties of Gabon Treaties of the Gambia Treaties of Ghana Treaties of Guinea Treaties of Guinea-Bissau Treaties of Kenya Treaties of Lesotho Treaties of Liberia Treaties of the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya Treaties of Madagascar Treaties of Malawi Treaties of Mali Treaties of Mauritania Treaties of Mauritius Treaties of the People's Republic of Mozambique Treaties of Namibia Treaties of Niger Treaties of Nigeria Treaties of Rwanda Treaties of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic Treaties of São Tomé and Príncipe Treaties of Senegal Treaties of Seychelles Treaties of Sierra Leone Treaties of the Somali Democratic Republic Treaties of South Africa Treaties of South Sudan Treaties of Tanzania Treaties of the Republic of the Sudan (1985–2011) Treaties of Eswatini Treaties of Togo Treaties of Tunisia Treaties of Uganda Treaties of Zambia Treaties of Zimbabwe 1981 in the Gambia African human rights system