Though the human rights framework has been primarily conceived of as implying universal human rights and domestic – or territorial – state duties, violations of human rights at the domestic level have come to be increasingly committed by extraterritorial actors that could be state or non-state entities. Territorially-bound responsibilities of states thus leave gaps in the protective regime of international (and regional) human rights law. Extraterritoriality is an emerging concept in the context of international human rights law, and has generally not been the focus of many books, and even less so in the African context. The adoption of the Maastricht Principles on Extraterritorial Obligations of States in the Area of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in 2011 – an expert opinion (adopted by experts from various regions including Africa) that is seen as an authoritative elucidation of the concept of extraterritorial obligations in human rights law – has led to increased attention on extraterritorial human rights obligations. However, the analysis of the spatial reach of states’ human rights duties from an African perspective in existing literature on extraterritorial obligations remains limited. The African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights has, in fact, long received complaints involving the extraterritorial reach of states’ human rights obligations. There are thus discernible trends in the jurisprudence of the regional system regarding the extraterritorial scope of the guarantees in the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights of 1981 (African Charter), states’ human rights duties, and individuals’ and groups’ rights to seek and enforce extraterritorial remedies. The African regional system is therefore ripe for an analysis of extraterritorial obligations, as the African regional mechanism could offer a framework within which to hold a foreign perpetrator responsible for the transboundary violations of African Charter-based rights of residents of third states.

The focus of this book is thus on extraterritorial obligations from an African regional perspective. The aim of this book is to address, among other things, the question of whether African regional human rights instruments impose extraterritorial obligations on states parties, and if so, the extent and scope of these obligations.