AU urges respect for human rights

The African Union (AU) warned on Thursday against the "erosion of human rights" as governments engage in the fight against terrorism.

At the closing of the first-ever AU conference on African national human rights institutions, officials warned that without proper checks, rights could be abused. They said that the fight against terrorism must be balanced with the protection of the rights of people detained as suspects.

African governments also faced calls to establish "independent and national" human rights organisations to protect their citizens.

The three-day conference, which ended Thursday, also expressed deep concern at the "continuous violation of the rights of children, women and displaced persons" in Africa.

"Member states of the AU who have not yet established national human rights institutions should do so without further delay," said a communiqué from the AU.

Currently, around 20 of the AU’s 53-member states have established human rights institutions, Julia Dolly Joiner, the AU’s Commissioner for Political Affairs, said at the summit held in the AU headquarters in Addis Ababa. She also stressed that governments must "jealously safeguard" the independence and effectiveness of human rights organisations operating within their countries.

"There are challenges and opportunities that lie ahead of us in our collective resolve to realise basic human rights for all in Africa," she said. "We must fashion a continent where human rights are guaranteed for all."

Joiner warned that despite many African countries ratifying numerous human rights policies, they have often "failed to translate their provisions into practical realities".

"A well governed Africa is what we need to rise from the present situation of gross violations of human rights," she said. "Combating corruption and poverty as serious violations of human rights is what we aim at [doing]."

The delegates called for greater cooperation between African human rights organisations and the AU. The comments on terrorism come as AU Chairman Alpha Oumar Konare said the 53-nation body was leading the fight against terrorism on the continent and has established the African Centre for the Study and Research on Terrorism in Algiers to help prevent and combat terrorism in Africa.