The Arab Charter on Human Rights

• - Also known as the Banjul Charter, an international human rights instrument seeking to promote and protect human rights in the African continent.
• - Emerged in the framework of the Organisation of African Unity (since replaced by the African Union)
• - Adopted in 1986
• - Drafted on the basis of already existing regional instruments
• - Ratified by more than forty African states
• - The most widely accepted regional convention.

• - Adopted in its orginial version by the Arab League in 1994, but never ratified by states.
• - Widely criticized at adoption as failing to meet international human rights standards.
• - Efforts were made to modernize the text through a revised Charter adopted in January 2004.
• - Only Jordan and Tunisia have ratified the revised Charter (requires 7 ratifications to enter into force).
• - 7 additional states have signed it, but not ratified.

Content

• - Unique in the sense that it covers both economic, social and cultural rights as well as civil and political rights.
• - Thus different from both the European and the American Conventions which follow a more traditional methodology.
• - Covers third generation rights.
• - Gives importance to the assumption that a person has duties as well as rights in the community.

• - revised Charter a substantial improvement on the original document, especially on issues such as state of emergency, fair trial, slavery, sexual violence, disability and trafficking.
• - Some provisions in the new Charter are still inconsistent with international human rights law, eg:
  • provisions for death penalties for minors.
  • right to life derogated in states of emergency.
  • no mention of cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment, although torture is prohibited.

Mechanisms

• - Overseen by the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights set up in 1987.
• - Later the African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights was created - a regional court that rules on African Union states' compliance with the African Charter.
• - In January 2006, the African Union elected the first judges of the African Court and it had its first meeting in July 2006.

• - New Charter creates a monitoring mechanism, similar to the Human Rights Committee.
• - Adoption of the revised Charter paves the way to the creation of a regional human rights mechanism for the Arab states, once the Charter comes into force.

► Read more about the Court on Wikipedia

► The Arab League web site contains the revised Charter in Arabic (part of the Summit report of 22–23 May 2004).
► Visit UNDP’s website for an English version.