The process of the elaboration and adoption of the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights

More than thirty years passed after the adoption by the General Assembly of the United Nations of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights before the African continent equipped itself with a regional mechanism for the promotion and protection of human and peoples' rights. However, the idea of drafting a human rights convention, with an organ charged with its implementation, began to take root in the 1960s. In effect, the proposal to create an African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights was put forward for the first time during the first Congress of African Jurists organised on the continent – after the first states became independent – at the initiative of the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) in January 1961, in Lagos, Nigeria. The Declaration that was adopted by the Congress called on African governments to adopt a convention on human rights with a court to which any individual under the jurisdiction of a state party could refer a case. However, nothing immediately followed this appeal. The Organization of African Unity (OAU), after its establishment, seemed to have other more pressing concerns, notably decolonisation, racial discrimination, economic development and African unity. It took three decades before the idea became concrete, in spite of the efforts of African jurists, the United Nations and non-governmental organisations (NGOs). The following developments summarise the long journey.