This study is entitled ‘investigating the challenges in enforcing international human rights law in Africa: Towards an effective regional system’. It centres around a critical research problem namely: what challenges beset regional enforcement of human rights law in Africa and how can they be addressed to ensure the effective promotion and protection of human rights in the continent? It critically reviews and revisits the discourses and scholarly arguments on the crucial issue of regional enforcement of human rights law in Africa. It traverses through historical epochs in order to explain the origins, scope and evolution of human rights law in Africa. This is done in the quest for answers to questions such as: When and how did Africa’s regional human rights system originate? What factors led to its emergence? Was the concept of human rights recognised in Africa prior to European colonial rule? What is the present status of international human rights in Africa? It therefore lays the foundations for a better understanding of the historical and philosophical origins and evolution of Africa’s regional human rights system. The study then proceeds to review the normative and institutional mechanisms established in Africa to enforce human rights at the regional level. Particularly, it highlights the roles of the African Commission and Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights in the light of their contribution to, and challenges in, the enforcement of human rights in the region. The study concludes with recommendations on the possible ways to invigorate the African human rights system. One of the key findings is that, with appropriate reforms, the system can be more effective. / Constitutional, International and Indigenous Law / LL.D. (Public, Constitutional and International Law)

This thesis uses the Critical theory to explore the history and functioning of African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights. This judicial institution was established in 1998. However, it did not rule any decision on the merits until 2013. All cases had been refused because it lacked the jurisdiction. Finally in 2013, two judgments were issued that solved the factual situation of applicants. Nevertheless, the danger still exists that the Court will function only if the states will allow it to do so. Such inactivity of the Court is firmly inconsistent with the intensity of human rights violations on the African continent. In the same way, it falsifies the presuppositions of liberal institutionalism that the international institutions should strengthen cooperation between states and contribute to the development of mutually interconnected areas: economic development, democracy and human rights protection. The thesis is an empirical case study which opposes the liberal-institutional ideas. It uses the Critical theory in narrow sense to show that those ideas played certain role in the establishment of the Court. Nonetheless, the real willingness of the states to empower the Court with authority and limit their sovereignty was absent. The Court, as a procedural enlargement of substantive human rights...