Towards a Positive Application of Complementarity in the African Human Rights System

According to the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights establishing \nthe African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights, the main function of the Court is to complement \nthe protective mandate of the already existing African Commission on Human and \nPeoples’ Rights. Thus, complementarity was introduced into the framework of the African \nhuman rights system. Since then, the concept of complementarity has also been brought into \nplay in the Protocol to the Statute of the proposed African Court of Justice and Human Rights. \nAlthough the interim rules of procedure of the Court and of the Commission have sought to \ngive meaning to the concept of complementarity, there is still very little understanding of \nhow it will pan out in the system. Questions abound as to the exact implication it would have \non the existing mechanisms of the Commission. Almost nothing has been said or written \non its impact on the African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child. \nAgainst this background, this article argues that complementarity in the African human \nrights system can be applied positively by adopting a normative approach that allows for the \nprescription of what the system’s supervisory institutions should do and how they should \nrelate to each other in their work. The article argues further that the justifications for the \nintroduction of judicial organs can also be employed to prescribe complementary functions for \neach supervisory institution. It concludes that applying complementarity positively would \nrequire encouraging each institution to focus on its strengths with a view to strengthening \nthe overall effectiveness of the system

Charter · Commission · Complementarity (molecular biology · Human rights · Institution · International human rights law · Law and economics · Mandate · Normative · Political science · Sociology · Human Rights and Development · International Law and Human Rights · Legal Issues in South Africa · Law

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