"Despite the above obligation enshrined in the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights (ACHPR), to protect, promote and fulfil the right to peace and security that is binding on them, African states are facing numerous armed conflicts. The African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights (the African Commission) has already found a violation of the right to peace. In that case, the Commission has stated that 'the responsibility for protection is incumbent on the State', which has therefore the obligation to make sure that people's right to peace is not infringed, either by its own forces or by uncontrolled ones. The right to peace has therefore been recognised and interpreted by the relevant and authoritative monitoring body, the African Commission. The African Union (AU), composed of all African states except Morocco, has also committed itself to work towards peace and security in the continent. Most importantly, it has endorsed the ACHPR by committing itself to 'promote and protect human and peoples' rights in accordance with the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights and other relevant human rights instruments'. These provisions are binding not only on the states parties to the Constitutive Act of the African Union (the AU Act), but also upon the African Union itself, as an international organisation that enjoys international capacity. Indeed, the Constitutive Act of the African Union stands as the constitution of the organisation. There should therefore be no doubt that the provisions of the AU Act bind the AU. However, no effective mechanism designed to ensure the fulfilment of the aims and accountability of international organisations exists. The reality on the ground is that Africa is facing a significant number of situations in which there is no peace. These situations violate the people's right to peace and security as protected under article 23 of the ACHPR. In 2000, it was estimated that 20 percent of Africa south of the Sahara's population lived in countries that were facing war and low intensity conflict. There is therefore a need for assessing the AU institutional capacity to fulfil its constitutional obligation of protecting the people's right to peace and security. ... Chapter one of this paper introduces the matter and defines the context in which it will proceed. It is a general presentation of the study. Chapter two will be devoted to human rights within the African Union. The first part of the chapter will deal with the right to peace and security in particular. The legal position of the AU towards human rights in Africa will then be discussed. Chapter three will be dealing with examples of the involvement of the AU in peace building on the continent. Chapter four will present and assess the AU's framework intended to realise peace and security in Africa. Chapter five will be focussed on the specific programmes of the AU that have a peace and security component. Chapter six will draw conclusions and make recommendations." -- Introduction. / Thesis (LLM (Human Rights and Democratisation in Africa)) -- University of Pretoria, 2005. / Prepared under the supervision of Dr. Enid Hill at the Political Science Department, American University in Cairo / http://www.chr.up.ac.za/academic_pro/llm1/dissertations.html / Centre for Human Rights / LLM

"Peace and security in Africa is defined as the condition for elaborating the humanity of Africans and the promise of the place of Africa in economic reconstruction in the next centruy. Apart from being a recognised right in the African human rights system, it is also present amongst the objectives and principles of the AU political agenda enshrined within the Constitutive Act, with its attainment seen as the gateway to Africa's economic development. Furthermore, this undeniable synergy between the maintenance of peace and security and the attainment of development, also determines the realisation of other human and peoples' rights. Therefore, peace and security is of utmost importance in the current affairs of the continent and, a right being attached to peace and security, adds extra weight to its attainment as it places a duty on other entities for its realisation. Notwithstanding this importance, the concept of the right to peace and security is still quite elusive and underdeveloped, a reality which is incomprehensible taking into consideration the infamous characteristic of the African continent for its political unrest and civil wars. With 14 current internal conflicts, Africa hosts more than one third of the ongoing conflicts in the world. The countries not engaged in civil wars are faced with civil and political unrests, refugee influxes, terrorism threats and attacks, the HIV/AIDS epidemic and other contagious diseases, high crime rates, and natural disasters to name a few. It is against this background that a study into the conceptualisation of the right to peace and security is warranted and, as well , the available mechanisms for its protection within the AU." -- Introduction. / 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

La juridicité des droits de solidarité, en l’occurrence les droits à la paix et au développement, est une problématique qui agite les controverses doctrinales en droit international. Contrairement aux droits civils et politiques, voire aux droits sociaux, économiques et culturels, les droits à la paix et au développement, symboles des droits de solidarité, sont renvoyés aux sphères axiologiques et du non-droit. Il est fait grief à ces droits de ne pas respecter les caractéristiques normatives nécessaires à l’octroi de la juridicité. Ils n’auraient donc pas d’objets, de titulaires et de fondements juridiques établis. Ce faisant, leurs effectivité et justiciabilité sont remises en question. Cette approche est contestable. Les droits à la paix et au développement sont de véritables droits subjectifs. Ayant un fondement juridique conventionnel et coutumier, les droits à la paix et au développement sont reconnus à l’État et à l’individu. Primo, le droit de l’individu et de l’État à la paix renvoie au droit d’être protégé contre les violences inhérentes au conflit armé, lequel se définit comme l’ensemble des violences armées collectives, intenses et prolongées. Secundo, le droit au développement de l’individu et de l’État équivaut au droit au bien-être et à l’épanouissement. Partant, en plus des mécanismes de protection non juridictionnelle dont ils bénéficient, il est possible de mobiliser ces droits devant le juge international en vue d’en assurer l’effectivité et la justiciabilité. / The justiciabilty of solidarity rights, especially the right to peace and the right to development, remains a controversial issue in international law scholars. Unlike the civil and political rights or even social, economical and cultural ones, the rights to peace and development, symbols of the solidarity rights are generally relegated to mere axiological and lawlessness aspects. Indeed, they are alleged to not be consistent with the normative features that determines the justiciability. From this point of view, they have been denied any object, neither holders, nor established legal basis. Hence their justiciability has been persistenly challenged. However, we argue that this approach is questionable, because the rights to peace and development are true subjective rights. Based on conventional and customary legal foundations, the rights to peace and development are recognized for both states and individuals. Firstly, the right of individuals and states to peace refers to the right to be protected against inherent violences of armed conflict, which is defined as all forms of collective, intense and protracted armed violence. Secondly, the right to development of the individuals and the state is equivalent to the right to well-being or to a full personal development. Therefore, in addition to non-judicial protection mechanisms, it is possible to claim those rights before international courts in order to ensure their effectiveness and their justiciability.