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Human
rights abuses in Zimbabwe and Gambia by authorities have brought to the
fore once again the issues of protection of citizens' rights within the
Commonwealth, one of the issues that the Commonwealth has jurisdiction
on.
The others are the promotion of democracy and the rule of law. The
gravity of the human rights abuses by the regimes in Zimbabwe and the
Gambia should focus people's minds on the issues in a general way. Such
abuses, it should be made clear, deserve the much attention from
leaders of the Commonwealth.
It is clear that Zimbabwean President
Robert Mugabe enjoys the monopoly over rights abuses and other crimes
against humanity in violent political situations - as we have seen in
recent months. The Commonwealth must stand to end such impunity. But
the Commonwealth can only act if the county whose nationals are
violated does not act against the transgressors of these aspects of
international law.
The Commonwealth could play an important role
in curbing abuses of international law in Africa. In the continuing
abuses that have taken place in parts of the continent in the recent
past, we have witnessed a high degree of impunity. Having said that, we
would like to point out that African countries have, over the years,
become parties to the various international legislations that have been
drawn up to protect fundamental freedoms and human rights of the
individual.
Some of these include the UN Convention on the
Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide of 1948; the Geneva
Conventions of 1949 for the Amelioration of Conditions of War and the
Protection of Civilians and War Victims; and the Convention against
Torture, and other Cruel, Inhuman of Degrading Treatment or Punishment
of 1984.
To top it all is Africa's own safeguard against human
rights abuses: the African Court of Human and Peoples' Rights. But,
alas, the Court is not functioning. Why? Well, it will become
operational only after 15 member states have ratified the Charter
setting up the Court. However, only two countries have done so while 23
have ratified the Rome Statute establishing the International Criminal
Court, even though the African Court's Charter has been around longer
that that of the ICC.
It is obvious that there is a singular lack of
political will among African leaders to give the continent legal weight
to tackle its own cases of human rights abuses so that there is no
passing the buck to the "international community" to deal with African
violations of human rights law.
That is exactly what has happened
in the case of Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo, which have
asked the ICC to investigate violations of international humanitarian
and human rights law in these countries. Perhaps, the case of Zimbabwe
and the Gambia deserve much attention because the impede on the
principles of democracy and human rights and undermines the rule of
law.
AfricaNews - Commonwealth and human rights - RSS english
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