Thirty-four years ago, on 21 October 1986, the Afrikan continent witnessed the coming into force of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (the African Charter), making it a legally binding human rights instrument to Afrikan State Parties after ratification and enforceable at national level. Only Nigeria has domesticated the Afrikan Charter and many Afrikan countries are just observers and signatories.
The adoption of the African Charter and the establishment of the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights (ACHPR) signalled a new era in the promotion and protection of human and people’s rights on the Afrikan continent.
Therefore, the month of October has been observed continentally and in the Afrikan diaspora as Afrika Human Rights Month, despite that many Afrikans are struggling to come to terms with the devastating effects that Covid-19 has had on their lives.
While many have lost their jobs, businesses, and different sources of income, others have been victims of human rights violations, including rape and other gender-based violence and femicide, abusive policing, discrimination based on their race, social class, or religion.
Navigating the Afrikan communities on the continent and many Afrikan governments, it is evident that a lack of observance and respect for human and peoples’ rights has been the order of the day, despite the lockdown regulations continentally.
This year’s commemorative month is occurring under difficult circumstances brought about by the novel coronavirus and the theme was Human and peoples’ rights and the Covid-19 pandemic: Protecting rights for building back better.
We have witnessed and experienced that our continent has displayed resilience and prevented the worst manifestation of the epidemic to a pandemic and in our efforts to rebuild back better institutions of higher learning play a pivotal role in terms of research and innovation and in responding to the man-made human disaster and catastrophes.
It is still a challenge in many Afrikan universities to observe or reflect on the significance of this Afrikan Human Rights Month and link it to the daily challenges that were experienced from the right to education and access to information, hence the Setswana saying ‘Ra Itlhathoba Batho Ba Tlhobaele’.
We further notice and observed that the Covid-19 pandemic exposed deep structural inequalities and weaknesses amongst and between communities and in some rural villages of our beloved continent. How can one who lacks water for handwashing comply with Covid-19 requirements? Or how can one physically distance when there is overcrowding in our informal settlements? The issues of data costs and connectivity among the students in various remote areas across the Afrikan continent were and are still a challenge.
The Afrikan governments who have committed and ratified the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights are urged to ensure that citizens access necessities, including proper sanitation, health, and social protection, and issues of corruption must also be avoided at all cost.
During this significant month, in the west part of the continent in Nigeria, Lagos, we experienced rapid police actions and brutality meted out against young people and more people have been killed by law enforcement agencies than the pandemic.
As we reflect on the theme, it will be advisable for the Afrikan governments to approach the issues of human rights and peoples with vigour, urgency, and allocate more human resources and capital.
In our concluding remarks, it is important that the African Union Commission and its member states, including South Africa, address the Covid-19 pandemic in line with Inspiration 3 of Agenda 2063 in ensuring an Afrika of good governance, democracy, and respect for human rights, justice, and the rule of law.
The importance of human rights education directed to our communities must intensify and our Afrikan media must also be aware and play their part and as we deflect and we further consciously remind the African Union Member states and its citizens that 10 months after the spread of the Covid-19 on the continent, it is now appropriate to take stock of the challenges and progress made while implementing their respective policies to combat human and people’s rights violations.
*By Advocate Sipho Mantula, College of Law
Publish date: 2020-11-11 00:00:00.0