REGIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS
PROTECTION MECHANISMS
Lone Lindholt, Senior Advisor, Ph.D
February 2014
Overview
European Convention on Human Rights -European
Court of Human Rights
American Convention on Human Rights Inter-American Commission and Court of Human
Rights
African Convention on Human and People’s
Rights - African Commission of Human Rights /
African Court of Human Rights
The 3 Major Regional Human Rights
systems
EUROPE – AMERICA – AFRICA
• 3 major regional organisations
• 3 major regional human rights instruments
and their protocols
• 3 major regional implementation organs
Regional HR mechanisms
Introduction
Advantage:
Possibility to bring your claim at a supranational
level (above the State)
Problems:
Accessibility
Political interference
Efficiency of implementation (including challenge of
relationship with domestic system)
Regional HR mechanisms
• Products of historical, institutional and
political evolution
• Universal human rights
• Political organisation
• Control mechanism
• Subsidiarity
• Political will
1. Europe (1)
Two major preoccupations in Europe after the
Second World War :
• Restoring fundamental human rights
• Securing peace in Europe
European construction and integration:
OSCE, EEC and EU, NATO, etc... and the
Council of Europe
1. Europe (2)
• Council of Europe – Member States:
• Founding members (1949): Belgium, Denmark, France,
Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Norway, Netherlands, UK, Sweden,
Greece, Turkey
• Western Europe (1950-1989): Iceland, Germany, Austria,
Cyprus, Switzerland, Malta, Portugal, Spain, Liechtenstein, San
Marino, Finland
• Central and Eastern Europe (1990’s): Hungary, Poland,
Bulgaria, Czech Rep., Slovakia, Slovenia, Romania, Lithuania,
Estonia, [Andorra], Albania, Latvia, Moldova, FYR of
Macedonia, Ukraine, Croatia, Russian Federation, Georgia
• Since 2000: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina,
Serbia and Montenegro, [Monaco]
1. Europe (3)
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Council of Europe – Institutions
Committee of Ministers
Parliamentary Assembly
Secretariat
Human rights at the centre:
+ European Convention on Human Rights & European
Court of Human Rights (1950) + other human rights
instruments + Commissioner
2. Americas (1)
1948: American Declaration of the Rights of Man and Charter of the
Organization of American States (OAS)
1959: Inter-American Commission on HR (1965: individual petition)
1969: American Convention on Human Rights (ACHR)
1970: Revised Charter of the Organization of American States
1978: Entry into force of the ACHR
1978: Entry in function of the Inter-American Court of HR
2. Americas (2)
25 American States have ratified or adopted
the ACHR: Argentina, Barbados, Bolivia,
Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Chile, Dominica,
Ecuador, El Salvador, Granada, Guatemala,
Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, Nicaragua,
Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Dominican Republic,
Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, Uruguay and
Venezuela.
2. Americas (3)
• Trinidad and Tobago denounced the ACHR in
1998 (death penalty cases)
• Cuba is not a Member of the OAS
• Canada has not signed nor ratified
• USA has signed but never ratified
• many small islands and small territories have
not signed the ACHR
3. Other regions - Asia
• Many attempts to establish a regional body
in the Asian Region (Asia-Pacific region)
 UN programs (Tehran framework),
LawAsia, Bangkok declaration, Asean
meetings, Asian NGOs and Asian human
rights commission
• ASEAN Inter-Governmental Commission on
Human Rights (AICHR), Terms of Reference
(ToR) adopted 20th July, Phuket, Thailand
3. Other regions
League of the Arab States / Revised Arab
Charter on Human Rights (2004)
Organization of the Islamic Conference / Cairo
Declaration on Human Rights in Islam (1990)
4. Africa (1)
Organisation of African Unity (1963): safeguarding
African sovereignty; territorial integrity; a
commitment to decolonisation,
and liberation
struggle
African Union (2002): peace, security, and stability on
the continent; democratic principles and institutions,
popular participation and good governance; and
promoting and protecting human peoples' rights in
accordance with the African Charter on Human and
Peoples' Rights and other relevant human rights
instruments
4. Africa (2)
53 members states: all African States except
Morocco
(Western Sahara dispute)
African Charter on Human and People’s
Rights (1981)
4. Africa (3)
• Main organs of the AU:
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Assembly
Executive Council
Commission
Permanent Representatives' Committee
Peace and Security Council (PSC)
Pan-African Parliament
ECOSOCC
The Court of Justice
+ Specialized Technical Committees, Financial Institutions (African Central Bank;
African Monetary Fund; African Investment Bank)
+ NEPAD (New partnership for African development)
THE TEXTS
The rights protected
• Civil and Political Rights (all)
• Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (African;
Inter-American by special protocol but
mentioned in text of C.)
• Collective/peoples’ Rights (African)
• Duties (African Charter; Inter-American
Convention)
• Derogations (European and Inter-American
Conventions)
Complaints Mechanisms
European Court of Human Rights (Before: both
Commission and Court)
Inter-American Commission and Court of
Human Rights
African Commission of Human Rights and Court
of Human Rights (under establishment)
Who can complain?
• States
• Individuals / NGOs / groups of persons
 Admissibility criteria
Which result?
• Judgment or decision on violation
• Compensation for pecuniary and non
pecuniary damages + costs and expenses
• Indication re. what the State should do
• Supervision of the implementation of the
judgment (by political organ/court)
Other African human rights
instruments
• OAU Refugee Convention 1969/1974
• African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of
the Child 1990/1999
• Protocol to the African Charter on the Rights
of Women in Africa 2003/2005
• Convention on Preventing and Combating
Corruption 2003/2006
• African Charter on Democracy and
Governance 2007/
African human rights supervisory
organs/institutions
• African Commission on Human and Peoples Rights –
Established under the African Charter – 1987
• African Court on Human and People’s Rights
1998/2004 merged with the Court of Justice in 2008,
creating an African Court of Justice and Human
Rights
• Committee on the Rights and Welfare of the Child
1999/2001
• The African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) 2002
adoption -
Workings of the African Commission
(1)
• Mandate to promote and protect
• Complaint/Communications mechanism –
State and Individual
• State reporting system
• Special rapporteurs and working groups
• On-site visits
• Adoption of resolutions
• Human rights education
Workings of the African Commission
(2)
• The Individual complaint system not expressly
provided –Serious and massive violations (art
58)
• Relevance of art 56 - Admissibility
• No victim requirement
• Interim/provisional measures –Rule 111
• Challenge of enforcement
African Court on Human and Peoples’
Rights
• Inaugurated in 2007 – Statute of African Court
of Justice and Human Rights Adopted 1 July
2008
• Seat of African HR Court in Arusha
• Rules of procedures newly adopted
• Jurisdiction over African Charter, Protocol and
other relevant instruments
• Restricted access for individuals/NGOs
Future of the African Human Rights
System ?
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New role for the African Commission?
Whither the African Court of Human Rights?
Subregional Courts – Expansion of the system?
What role for domestic courts
Partnership for the future- INGOs and LNGOs
Conclusion
• Not a perfect system but it has come to stay
and there is only room for improvement.
• Every body has a part to play.