Constitutionalisation of Human Rights in selected African states and reasons for abuse

Abstract

It is incontrovertible that Africa has made a tremendous progress in the globalisation of human rights in the past decade. This is  demonstrated through the proclamation of African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights. However, despite this progress, abuse of  human rights appears to be on the increase as a result of several factors to wit: insecurity, poverty, unemployment, attitude of  government officials and security agents. The above prompted this research for the purpose of unearthing the factors responsible for  human rights abuse in selected African countries. This paper adopted doctrinal approach hinged on exposition and comparative analysis  of primary and secondary sources of materials such as case law, statutes and internet resources. The paper revealed that the  constitutions of most African countries repeated in detail the provisions of international bill of rights and African Charter on Human  Peoples’ Right yet several practices hindered the protection of human rights in Africa. Such practices include ouster clauses, locus standi,  non-justiciable provisions among others. The paper also discovered that most international human rights instruments and treaties  ratified by some African countries have neither been incorporated in the municipal laws of the countries nor that the relevant  enforcement mechanisms put in place, thus rendering the treaties or instruments worthless for the purpose of human right protection  and enforcement among others. The paper recommends a number of measures which, if adopted and relentlessly pursued, would stem  the ugly tide of human rights violation and generally improve the living condition of the people of Africa.