The Legal Profession and the Protection of Human Rights in Africa

The rise of an international human rights culture required the creation of regional and international human rights treaties which today, are generally regarded as universal standards of human rights protection to be adopted by nations of the world. These treaties are viewed as terms of human rights protection to which national governments ought to commit themselves. They are also viewed as standards for holding perpetrators of violations accountable for their actions. The treaties are powerful instruments for social, political, economic and cultural change. For maximum protection there is a need to go beyond the formalism. There is a need to ensure not only the adoption and ratification of these treaties by national governments, but significantly, their practical application and implementation at all levels of national governance, including the administration of justice in the domestic courts of law. Their application at regional international tribunals is also vital. The national, regional and international application and implementation of these instruments in Africa is particularly significant for the development of an indigenous human rights culture on the African continent. A salient benefit is that the legal profession, including the judiciary, will have an opportunity to identify particular shortcomings and strengthens of these treaties for the realistic implementation in the African context. To create a broadly shared human rights world order, Africa has to be integral to the shaping of that world order. The conference on the legal profession and the protection of human rights in Africa was necessary to highlight and popularize the utility of national, regional and international human rights treaties in relevant courts and tribunals. At this meeting between African and European human right practitioners, a significant step was made towards improved cooperation between African and European human rights practitioners. The conference addressed the state of human rights protection in the respective countries. Significant was the status of the African Charter and United Nations human rights treaties in the respective countries, the attitude of the judiciary towards their application in national courts and measures taken by states to implement human rights principles for the protection of men and women alike. It is indeed true, that human rights belong to the people. It is therefore important for governments and organised civil society to strive for cooperation in implementing human peoples' rights.