AU must focus on human rights

The recently launched African Union (AU) had to focus on strengthening human rights institutions or it would not fulfill its promise, said Human Rights Watch.

"The African Union's Constitutive Act pledges respect for human rights and rejects the widespread impunity that has characterised armed conflict and political repression in many African countries. In 'grave circumstances' such as occurred during the Rwandan genocide, the Constitutive Act authorises the African Union to intervene.

"But the existing regional human rights institutions the African Union will inherit, have been crippled by a lack of resources and political will," a Human Rights Watch statement said.

Leading African states in the AU have also adopted the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD), aimed at lifting Africa out of poverty through good governance and economic development.

Human Rights Watch said that although NEPAD "has also developed its own code of governance and system for 'peer review' ... its pledges on human rights remain vague".

"The African Union will only succeed if it replaces the culture of impunity with the culture of accountability," said Peter Takirambudde, Director of Human Rights Watch's Africa division. "That means making sure the nice words of its Constitutive Act and of NEPAD come to life and that there are consequences if states don't live up to what they say they will do."

Human Rights Watch called on AU members to: finalise a strong protocol to the African Charter on women's rights, "negotiations on which have been stalled for months"; ratify the protocol establishing an African Court on Human and People's Rights; and give Africa's existing human rights body, the African Commission on Human and People's Rights, the resources and political backing needed to carry out its mandate.