The Utility of Cross-Cutting Rights in Enhancing the Justiciability of Socio-Economic Rights of the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights

University of Tasmania Law Review, Vol. 29, No. 1, 2011

18 Pages Posted: 23 May 2009 Last revised: 29 Oct 2012

See all articles by Takele Soboka Bulto

Takele Soboka Bulto

Royal Melbourne Institute of Technolog (RMIT University) - Graduate School of Business and Law; Addis Ababa University - School of Law

Date Written: April 28, 2011

Abstract

The degree of justiciability (as well as enforcement) of the socio-economic rights of the African Charter have always played second fiddle to that of the traditional civil and political rights. Over two decades after the coming into force of the Charter, the African Commission has received merely two communications - the SERAC case and the Purhoit case - principally dealing with socio-economic rights out of the nearly 400 complaints it has received and/or decided since its establishment in 1987. This paper argues that the marginalised state of justiciability of socio-economic rights in the African system of human rights is primarily due to the slow pace of normative development of the relevant rights. As a result, the relatively obscure normative content of the rights means that it becomes significantly more difficult for activists and litigants to 'spot' the breaches with ease and specificity. Arguably, this has been a 'push factor' in using direct justiciability of the rights in question. The main objective of this paper is to depict that the justiciability of socio-economic rights of the African Charter could greatly benefit from the use of other overarching rights such as the equality guarantee, the right to judicial protection and remedies and the right to due process as a means of proving violations of socio-economic rights. Such an indirect approach carries a potential of enhancing justiciability of the socio-economic rights enshrined in the Charter. Whenever a given socio-economic right is infringed, it usually leads to, results from or is accompanied by the violation of one or a combination of the right to equality, the right to judicial protection and the right to due process. A redress to the latter could also remedy violations of socio-economic rights.

Keywords: Africa, Human Rights, Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, Justicability, Litigation, Remedies, African Charter, African Commission, African Court, Indivisibility , Interrelatedness and interdepndence, interpretation, reading in, purposive approach

JEL Classification: K10, K30, K33, K40, K41, K42, K49

Suggested Citation

Bulto, Takele Soboka, The Utility of Cross-Cutting Rights in Enhancing the Justiciability of Socio-Economic Rights of the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights (April 28, 2011). University of Tasmania Law Review, Vol. 29, No. 1, 2011, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1408826

Takele Soboka Bulto (Contact Author)

Royal Melbourne Institute of Technolog (RMIT University) - Graduate School of Business and Law ( email )

Melbourne
Australia

Addis Ababa University - School of Law ( email )

Addis Ababa
Ethiopia

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