This dissertation focuses on an analysis of the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) as a standard for ‘good governance’. The APRM is a democratic initiative on behalf of African leaders to strengthen governance and democratic processes on the continent, in order to build a successful foundation for development. This is intended to be achieved through a new concept in African politics – ‘peer review’. Thus, the APRM is an innovative solution to the governance problems of the African states. However, the APRM is not without its issues. The process is voluntary and its recommendations are not enforced. Although the APRM is intended as an overall country review, according to its rules national governments are in the driving seat, which raises concerns with regard to possible manipulations. The extensive standards utilised by the APRM and analysed in this dissertation are of little substance practically, as they mostly fail to provide definitions of key concepts, measuring tools, and normative recommendations. As case studies, this dissertation examines four problems of four African states: Rwanda and sovereignty; Kenya and democracy; South Africa and corruption; and Ghana and neopatrimonialism. These case studies show that although in many instances the APRM is on the right track, in its current format it is too weak to significantly impact on African politics. The APRM is an effort to strengthen ‘good governance’ in Africa, but it often lacks the collective will of its members to achieve its objectives. Copyright / Dissertation (MA)--University of Pretoria, 2009. / Political Sciences / unrestricted

For many decades, regionalism was considered a potential solution to the different crises faced by the African continent. So-called old regionalism, as implemented between the 1960s and late 1980s, yielded limited success in addressing the multidimensional challenges on the continent, resulting in a re-evaluation of Africa’s approach to continental cooperation and integration, with a view to continental development. With new trends emerging in international relations following the end of the Cold War, new regionalism was introduced as an innovative way to deal with relations between regional partners. With the launch of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD), Africa officially declared its endorsement of new regionalism. This study assesses the potential of NEPAD to deal with the numerous developmental challenges facing Africa. It explores how new regionalism could contribute to the resolution of a range of crises and challenges on the continent. The study focuses on Africa’s past regionalist experience, the role of new regionalism in addressing Africa’s trade and investment dilemma, as well as its role in promoting good governance and peace in Africa. The study concludes that notwithstanding the positive contribution of new regionalism, especially through its multidimensional approach, NEPAD will face tremendous challenges, mostly due to the failure of new regionalism in acknowledging the influence of other operational contexts – international and domestic – on the success of regionalist ventures. / Dissertation (MA)--University of Pretoria, 2008. / Political Sciences / unrestricted

"Furthermore, the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) has been proposed as a key element of the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD). The APRM is said to be the most remarkable innovation in the AU and the NEPAD framework designed to promote good governance and human rights. Its central purpose is to ensure the compliance of African states with the standards and practices of governance contained in the Declaration on Democracy, Political, Economic and Corporate Governance (Durban Declaration). Although the APRM has been welcomed by a large number of development actors, there are also some doubts as to this mechanism working in the context of Africa. One of the main reasons for such reservations is that peer review on political governance has never been tested elsewhere before. ... The study is structured into five chapters. This first chapter serves as an introduction and has described the context of this paper by giving the background and general structure of the paper. Chapter two will briefly define the notion of peer review, highligting the founding context and the process of the APRM itself. This summary is necessary for a proper understanding of the paper. Chapter three will endeavor to point out the human rights aspects in the APRM, that is, the substance and potential of the mechanism for human rights protection and promotion, including references to international human rights instruments. Chapter four is a proposal for giving the APRM the best prospect for success; this will include adopting a 'population-based approach', meaning that the citizens are central part and owners of the process of the evaluation of government policies. Such ownership should produce a more realistic evaluation of the outcomes of public policies. Finally, chapter five will conclude this study by providing some recommendations as to how to ensure that APRM is a tool that guarantees human rights." -- Introduction. / Thesis (LLM (Human Rights and Democratisation in Africa)) -- University of Pretoria, 2004. / Prepared under the supervision of Doctor Enid Hill, Chair of the Department of Political Science, American University in Cairo, Cairo, Egypt / http://www.chr.up.ac.za/academic_pro/llm1/dissertations.html / Centre for Human Rights / LLM

Over time, news about Africa has not been encouraging, whether in relation to poverty; incessant and sporadic conflicts; ineffective leadership; or in relation to the failure of the continent to develop in spite of the vast natural resources with which it is endowed. The failure of good governance in Africa epitomises the plight of the continent, and is the result of many factors including; diverse ethnic divisions across the continent, imposition of foreign systems through colonialisation, to name a few. This thesis also identifies an important factor which is the challenge to the rule of law on the continent. For the rule of law to be established in a society, the law first has to be an integral part of the society, and has to be legitimate, and internalised by the society. For laws and the law-making processes to be legitimate, there needs to be the consent and participation of the people which the law seeks to bind. This is lacking in most African countries where laws are often vestiges of the colonial era, and where the post-colonial law-making mechanisms have not induced confidence. These situations have led to a deficit in the legitimacy of the law in Africa, and the inability of such laws to structure and govern the people; because the people have more often than not been excluded from the law-making process, nor given their consent to be bound by the laws. The resultant effect of these realities is that the laws generally lack legitimacy and are adhered to only when sanctions are attached. This thesis investigates the Constitution as the foundational law in two former British colonies in Africa, namely Nigeria and South Africa and in particular, the way in which it is made; the resultant legitimacy, and the effects on the peoples’ response and interaction with the law. This is in order to draw a nexus between the lack of legitimacy of laws in Africa (as evidenced in the constitution making processes), and the challenges faced by the rule of law on the continent, using the cases of Nigeria and South Africa. / Thesis (LLD)--University of Pretoria, 2011. / Public Law / unrestricted

"The right to participate in the political and economic life of one's state is guaranteed in most African constitutions as well as in regional and international human rights instruments. It is practiced in various froms, one of which is through elections. Zambia and Uganda are among African countries that have embarked on the democratisation process. The leadership of the two countries ascribed to the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD), launched in October 2001. NEPAD emphasises a "common vision and a firm and shared conviction" by African leaders for Africa's development. It is the determination of Africans to extricate themselves and the continent from the malaise of underdevelopment and exclusion in a globalising world. ... Since the return to multiparty politics in 1991, Zambia has had periodic elections every five years, the latest being in December 2001. Uganda too, after two decades of instability and military dictatorship, returned to the path of democracy under the leadership of Yoweri Kaguta Museveni and the National Resistance Movement (NRM) and had the latest elections in June 2001, although in contrast to Zambia, it was held on the basis of a "no-party" system. Common to the elections in the two countries are alleged electoral malpractices. The electoral processes in place in the two countries have perpetuated the trend. As a result, the electorate have been cheated of their genuine choices. For NEPAD to achieve the vision it postulates, Africa requires committed leadership borne out of free, fair, open and democratic electoral processes. Africa needs electoral practices that guarantee fairness, inclusiveness and accountability of the elected to the electorate. Zambia and Uganda must adopt electoral practices that would foster democracy in the two countries and in line with the NEPAD vision for Africa stipulated in the Declaration on Democracy, Political, Economic and Corporate Governance (DDPECG). ... This thesis consists of five chapters. The first chapter outlines the context of the study. Chapter two is devoted to a study of NEPAD objectives, goals and tasks with particular attention to democracy, good governance, and free and fair and periodic elections. Chapter three looks at the electoral and legal framework of Zambia while chapter four addresses the electoral and legal frame of Uganda. Chapter five is a summary of the study and makes conclusions from the entire study and some recommendations for the adoption of particular electoral practices by the two countries, NEPAD, the civil society and the donor community." -- Introduction. / Thesis (LLM (Human Rights and Democratisation in Africa)) -- University of Pretoria, 2004. / Prepared under the supervision of Professor J. Oloka-Onyango at the Faculty of Law, Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda / http://www.chr.up.ac.za/academic_pro/llm1/dissertations.html / Centre for Human Rights / LLM

This study seeks to investigate the effectiveness of the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) in fostering good governance practices in Africa. The APRM was established in 2003 subsequent to the launch of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) in 2001, as an instrument to monitor the adoption and implementation of policies and practices that would lead to political stability, high economic growth and accelerated regional cooperation and integration as set out in the NEPAD document. The ultimate goal of the APRM is to instil good governance in Africa, which NEPAD considers the sine qua non for Africa’s development. The principal finding of this study is that the mechanism of peer review through the APRM has the potential to foster good governance in Africa, and thus, to pave the way to poverty alleviation and development. The peer review process provides an opportunity for participating countries to become aware of the strengths and shortcomings in their policy-making, governance institutions and practices and to share best practices of administrative, political and economic governance. It offers a forum for dialogue, peer learning, and regional and continental cooperation in which the challenges facing African countries, both individually and collectively, can be tackled. The APRM has initiated a process of dialogue between government and other societal actors (mainly civil society and business) about governance and development issues and how these can best be addressed. This is an important step towards the consolidation of democracy and better governance in Africa. It is for these benefits and for the potential for better governance that the APRM needs all the political and financial support it can get. The APRM is, however fraught with many challenges, which are likely to impede the effectiveness of its contribution. These challenges include the voluntary nature of the APRM, its inability to enforce policy, the absence of adequate funding, poor and limited administrative resources for implementation. In addition, the weak civil society in most African states militates against meaningful participation in and contribution to the process of peer review. Addressing these obstacles is imperative for the APRM to deliver its full potential. To this end, the study proffers a number of recommendations, which include the provision of strong political and financial support from African states, capacity building of national institutions that oversee government performance, such as the parliament and civil society, and the consistent financial support of donors and the international community. The study reveals that the road to a successful and effective APRM, and thus to a peaceful and prosperous Africa may lie in the future, but the foundation for Africa’s political and economic renaissance must be laid now. / Thesis (PhD (Public Affairs))--University of Pretoria, 2008. / School of Public Management and Administration (SPMA) / unrestricted

"The New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) is an African Union (AU) mandated programme whose main focus is to address key social, economic, and political issues for the African continent. Within the NEPAD programme and vision is the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM), which has been described as a system of self-assessment, constructive peer dialogue, persuasion, and sharing of experience among member states of the African Union. The APRM is the execution mechanism for NEPAD, whose mandate is to monitor the preformance of states in different programme areas including human rights. The mandate on human rights monitoring falls within the political governance component of the NEPAD Declaration on Democracy, Political, Economic and Corporate Governance (NEPAD Declaration). The APRM has been introduced with a human rights monitoring component in a context where there already exist a number of other human rights mechanisms and institutions such as the African Commission. The proposed processes of the APRM in monitoring human rights in some ways resemble those of the African Commission while at the same time there are major differences between these mechanisms. For example, while the Africa Commission is a quasi-judicial body, which engages in legal processes, the APRM is a political process where heads of state are among the main actors. Some analysts have expressed the view that the creation of the APRM as a political process adds a vital component to the human rights monitoring in Africa which, since the creation of the African Commission, has remained purely legal and thus had limited success in ensuring human rights protection in Africa. While some have shared their doubt over the added value and role of the APRM in human rights monitoring, others have hailed it for providing a forum where heads of state will make political commitments for the protection of human rights. In this regard, the aim of this study is to analyse the role that the APRM will play in human rights monitoring in Africa. This analysis is done in relation to the work that is being done by the African Commission and the challenges that it has confonted over the years. In analysing the role of the APRM in human rights monitoring, this study unpacks the concept of peer review and analyse its practical implementation in Africa, especially in the field of human rights. This study also explores the implications on human rights protection and promotion of the co-existence of the African Commission and the APRM. ... Chapter 1 states the research questions/hypothesis, objectives of the study, relevance of study and literature review. It also looks at the scope and limitations of the study. Chapter 2 gives background information to the concept of peer review, how it is used in ensuring compliance with set standards by states and organisation. An analysis of the use of peer review by other international organisations is done. Further it gives an analysis of the APRM with a specific focus on its human rights monitoring role. Chapter 3 provides a brief background of the African Commission, its mandate and the challenges confronting it in its work. Thereafter there is an analysis of the challenges of the APRM in human rights monitoring and protection. Furthermore, the chapter critically analyses and evaluates peer review and its application in human rights monitoring in Africa. This chapter also highlights the similarities, overlaps and differences in the work and mandate of the APRM and the African Commission. Chapter 4 is the concluding chapter, which also provides recommendations for enhancing the efficiency and the co-operation of the APRM and the African Commission." -- Chapter 1. / Thesis (LLM (Human Rights and Democratisation in Africa)) -- University of Pretoria, 2003. / http://www.chr.up.ac.za/academic_pro/llm1/dissertations.html / Centre for Human Rights / LLM

"The promotion and protection of human rights is important both at the national and international level. However, at the national level, several factors including government excesses tend to negatively affect the status of implementation of human rights. This has led to national human rights situations being measured against international standards. In this regard, different strategies have been developed to ensure compliance with international norms, the most basic of which is that of state reporting. ... This procedure is found in international and regional human rights instruments. Examples are treaties in the United Nations (UN), European, Inter-American and African human rights systems. In the African system, the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights is the core human rights instrument. The African Charter is seen as a 'unique' document that represents the 'African' concept of rights. ... Under article 1 of the Charter, state parties undertake to adopt legislative and other measures to give effect to the rights in the Charter. Article 62 obliges each state party to submit every two years, from the date the Charter comes into force, a report on the legislative or other measures taken with a view to giving effect to the rights and freedoms recognised and guaranteed by the Charter. The organ responsible for evaluation of reports is the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights (African Commission). ... It should be noted from the outset that the African Commission's competence to ensure effective implementation of the African Charter by member states has been affected due to various problems affecting the state reporting system. The most endemic of these include infrequent and inadequate reporting. ... Chapter one introduces the study, the framework of the problem that the study seeks to address and the methodology to be employed. Chapter two discusses the concept of state reporting, how the system works under the African Charter and the challenges therein. A comparative analysis of other international and regional reporting systems is also made with the chief objective of identifying how they deal with state reporting problems. Chapter three presents an overview of the APRM which includes an analysis of the human rights aspects of the mechanism. Chapter four critically analyses how the APRM can be utilised to help the African Commission address the problems of infrequent and inadequate reporting under the African Charter, and chapter five contains the conclusion and recommendations of the study." -- Introduction. / Thesis (LLM (Human Rights and Democratisation in Africa)) -- University of Pretoria, 2006. / Prepared under the supervision of Dr. Alejandro Lorite at the Department of Law, American University in Cairo, Cairo, Egypt / http://www.chr.up.ac.za/academic_pro/llm1/dissertations.html / Centre for Human Rights / LLM