The African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights, also called the Banjul Charter, is the regional human rights treaty of the African continent. The Organization of African Unity, predecessor of the African Union, commissioned a committee of experts in 1979 to draft a continental human rights instrument comparable to those already adopted in Europe and the Americas, and the resulting Charter was unanimously approved at the OAU's 18th Assembly in Nairobi in June 1981. It entered into force on 21 October 1986, a date now marked annually as African Human Rights Day, once a simple majority of member states had ratified it, and all 53 African states have since done so. The African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights, established in Addis Ababa in November 1987 and headquartered in Banjul, Gambia, oversees the Charter's implementation and interpretation, and a 1998 protocol created the African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights, which became operational in 2006.
Facts
Promulgated ByOrganization of African Unity 1 Identity
SymbolOAU Doc. CAB/LEG/67/3 rev. 5 1 Legal Status
Legal Status (category) Era
Era (category)20th Century (1900-1999) 1 Connections
In Legal System
Source African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights (Wikipedia)
Sources
1. African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights (University of Minnesota Human Rights Library)
Page heading citation line, adoption date
African [Banjul] Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights, adopted June 27, 1981, OAU Doc. CAB/LEG/67/3 rev. 5, 21 I.L.M. 58 (1982), entered into force Oct. 21, 1986
Introduction
Article 61 The Commission shall also take into consideration, as subsidiary measures to determine the principles of law, other general or special international conventions, laying down rules expressly recognized by member states of the Organization of African Unity, African practices consistent with international norms on human and people's rights, customs generally accepted as law, general principles of law recognized by African states as well as legal precedents and doctrine.
Page heading citation line, document symbol
African [Banjul] Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights, adopted June 27, 1981, OAU Doc. CAB/LEG/67/3 rev. 5, 21 I.L.M. 58 (1982), entered into force Oct. 21, 1986
View the Source2. African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights (Wikipedia)
Lead
The African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights (also known as the Banjul Charter) is an international human rights instrument that is intended to promote and protect human rights and basic freedoms in the African continent.
In Legal System: Public International Law, Introduction
It emerged under the aegis of the Organisation of African Unity (since replaced by the African Union) which, at its 1979 Assembly of Heads of State and Government, adopted a resolution calling for the creation of a committee of experts to draft a continent-wide human rights instrument, similar to those that already existed in Europe (European Convention on Human Rights) and the Americas (American Convention on Human Rights).
In Group: Human Rights Conventions and Declarations, Introduction, sentence 1
The African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights (also known as the Banjul Charter) is an international human rights instrument that is intended to promote and protect human rights and basic freedoms in the African continent.
View the SourceWikidata: African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights
Wikidata Q385961, class allow-list match (w-wdresolver-0926)View the Source Reader Challenges (0)
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