American

African Charter on
Convention on European
Human and People’s
Human Rights Convention on
Rights
(Pact of San Human Rights
(Banjul Charter)
José)
 Entered into force on October 21, 1986, It was adopted by many Drafted in 1950 by the then
countries in the Western newly formed Council of
Hemisphere in San José, Costa Europe,[1] the convention
Rica, on 22 November 1969 , it entered into force on 3
did not enter into force until September 1953.
July 1978 All Council of Europe
member states are party to
the Convention and new
members are expected to
ratify the convention at the
earliest opportunity
As of 2016, 54 states have ratified the
Jurisdiction Charter.[5] It has been ratified by every African
Union member state.
The Charter followed the footsteps of the Any person who feels his or
European and Inter-American systems by her rights have been
creating a regional human rights system for violated under the
CONTRASTING Africa. The Charter shares many features
with other regional instruments, but also has
Convention by a state party
can take a case to the
FEAUTURES notable unique characteristics concerning Court. Judgments finding
the norms it recognizes and also its supervisory violations are binding on
mechanism the States concerned and
they are obliged to execute
 them. The Committee of
Ministers of the Council of
Europe monitors the
execution of judgements,
particularly to ensure
payment of the amounts
awarded by the Court to
the applicants in
compensation for the
damage they have
sustained.[3] The
compensations imposed
under ECHR can be large;
in 2014 Russia was ordered
to pay in excess of $2
billion in damages to
former shareholders
of Yukos. [

The preamble commits to the elimination of  Chapter IV describes

Zionism, which it compares those circumstances in
with colonialism and apartheid, caused South
[8]
which certain rights can
Africa to qualify its 1996 accession with the be temporarily
reservation that the Charter fall in line with the suspended, such as
UN's resolutions "regarding the characterization during states of
of Zionism emergency, and the
formalities to be followed
for such suspension to be
valid. However, it does
not authorize any
suspension of Article 3
(right to juridical
 personality), Article 4
(right to life), Article 5
(right to humane
treatment), Article 6
(freedom from slavery),
Article 9 (freedom
from ex post facto laws),
Article 12 (freedom of
conscience and religion),
Article 17 (right to
family), Article 18 (right
to the name), Article 19
(rights of the child),
Article 20 (right to
nationality), or Article 23
(right to participate in
government)
 The Protocol to the
American Convention
on Human Rights to
Abolish the Death
Penalty, was adopted
at Asunción, Paraguay,
on 8 June 1990. While
Article 4 of the American
Convention had already
placed severe
restrictions on the states'
ability to impose the
death penalty – only
applicable for the most
 serious crimes; no
reinstatement once
abolished; not to be used
for political offenses or
common crimes; not to
be used against those
aged under 18 or over
70, or against pregnant
women – signing this
protocol formalizes a
state's solemn
commitment to refrain
from using capital
punishment in any
peacetime circumstance.
 The treaty is open to all
OAS member states,
although to date it has
not been ratified by
Canada or several of the
English-speaking
Caribbean nations; the
United States signed it in
1977 but has not
proceeded with
ratification.

Canada did at one point

seriously consider
ratification, but has
decided against it,
despite being in principle
in favour of such a
treaty. The ACHR, having
been largely drafted by
the predominantly
Roman Catholic nations
of Latin America,[citation
needed] contains pro-life
provisions, specifically,
Article 4.1:

“Every person has the

right to have his life
respected.
This right shall be
protected by law and, in
general, from the
moment of conception.
No one shall be
arbitrarily deprived of his
life.”

This conflicts with the

current legality of
abortions in Canada.
Although Canada could
ratify the convention
with a reservation with
respect to abortion (as
did Mexico[11]), that
would contradict
Canada's stated
 opposition to the making
of reservations to human
rights treaties. Another
solution would be for the
other states to remove
the anti-abortion
provisions, but that is
unlikely to occur due to
strong opposition to
abortion in those
countries.
African Court of Human and Peoples’ Inter-American Commission European Court of Human
Bodies or Courts Rights (ACHPR) on Human Rights and Rights (ECHR)
tasked to oversee the Inter-American Court of
Human Rights, both of which
the compliance of are organs of the Organization
the Charter of American States (OAS).
 There is no restriction on who may file a There is no restriction on who may file a complaint with it.
complaint with it. In contrast to the European and American procedures,
 Also, the African charter did not, at the however, concerned states are encouraged to reach a
beginning, call for a human rights court. friendly settlement without formally involving the
African customs and traditions, it has investigative or conciliatory mechanisms of the commission.
been said, have long emphasized
mediation, conciliation,
and consensus rather than the
adversarial and adjudicative procedures
that are common to Western legal
systems.
 Nevertheless, owing largely to political
changes wrought by the end of the Cold
War, an African Court of Human and
 Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR) was created
in January 2004 to render judgments on
the compliance by AU states with the
African charter. The court did not replace
the commission.
 the right to freedom from The 23 articles of Chapter II Article 1 – obligation to
discrimination (Article 2 and 18(3)) give a list of individual civil respect human rights
 equality (Article 3), and political rights due to all The state has the
 life and personal integrity (Article 4), persons, including responsibility to respect
 the right to life "in every individual’s human
 dignity (Article 5),
general, from the rights, as set out in the
 freedom from slavery (Article 5),
moment of Convention itself.
 freedom from cruel, inhuman or conception",[1]
degrading treatment or punishment  to humane treatment, Article 2 – right to life
(Article 5),  to a fair trial, We all have the right to life,
 rights to due process concerning arrest to privacy, and not be killed by another
Civil and and detention (Article 6),  to freedom of person.
 the right to a fair trial (Article 7 and 25),
Political  freedom of religion (Article 8),
conscience,
 freedom of The state must protect
people’s lives by enforcing
Rights  freedom of information and
expression (Article 9),
assembly, freedom of
movement, etc. the law, protecting those in
 Article 15 prohibits danger, and safeguard
 freedom of association (Article 10),
"any propaganda for against accidental deaths.
freedom to assembly (Article 11),
 freedom of movement (Article 12), war and any advocacy
Article 3 – prohibition of
 freedom to political participation (Article of national, racial, or
torture and cruel,
13), and religious hatred that
inhuman and degrading
constitute incitement
 the right to property (Article 14). treatment
to lawless violence or
Nobody, under any
to any other similar
*the right to privacy or a right against forced or circumstances, can torture or
action against any
compulsory labour are not explicitly abuse anyone else. We
person on any grounds
recognised.
 including those of should never be treated in
race, color, religion, ways that cause us serious
language, or national physical or mental suffering.
origin" to be
considered as offence Article 4 – prohibition of
punishable by slavery and forced labour
law.[2] This provision is Nobody should ever be made
established under a slave or forced to work
influence of Article 20 against their will.
of the International There are minor exceptions
Covenant of Civil and to this article, for example in
Political Rights. some cases it is legal to
 right to work (Article 15),  expanded with require someone to work in if
the Protocol of San they’re in prison or the
 the right to health (Article 16), and
Salvador or the military services.
the right to education (Article 17).
Additional Protocol
to the American Article 5 – right to liberty
Through a decision by the African and security
Commission on Human and Peoples' Convention on
Economic, Rights, SERAC v Nigeria (2001), the Human Rights in the We can only be detained in
certain circumstances, for
area of Economic,
Social and 
Charter is also understood to include a:
right to housing and Social, and Cultural example if we’ve been
convicted by a court, or if
Rights ( city of San
Cultural  a right to food as “implicit” in the
Charter, particularly in light of its Salvador, El Salvador, we’re considered to be a
danger to ourselves.
Rights provisions on on 17 November
1988)
 the right to life (Art. 4), Article 6 – right to a fair
 It represented an
 right to health (Art. 16) and to trial
attempt to take the
development (Art. 22). We have the right to a fair
inter-American human
and public trial, within a
rights system to a
reasonable amount of time,
higher level by
enshrining its
 protection of so- by an independent and
called second- unbiased judge.
generation rights in
the economic, social, If charged with an offence we
and cultural spheres. should be assumed innocent
The protocol's until proven guilty.
provisions cover such
areas as the Article 7 – no punishment
 right to work, the right without law
to health, All crimes should be clearly
 the right to food, and defined by the law. We can
the only be found guilty of a
 right to education. criminal offence if there was
a law against it at the time
it came into effect on 16 the act was committed. Once
November 1999 found guilty of a crime we
In addition to recognising the individual rights cannot later be given a
mentioned above the Charter also recognises heavier sentence.
collective or group rights, or peoples'
Article 8 – right to respect
rights and third-generation human rights. As
privacy and family life
such the Charter recognises group rights to a
This right exists to protect
Peoples' Rights degree not matched by the European or Inter-
four things: our family life,
American regional human rights instruments.
and Group The Charter awards the:
our home, our private life,
and our correspondence.
Rights  family protection by the state (Article
18), We have the right to live with
 while "peoples" have the right to equality our family and our loved
(Article 19), the right to self- ones.
determination (Article 20),
 to freely dispose of their wealth Respect for the home guards
and natural resources (Article 21), against intrusion into where
 the right to development (Article 22),
 the right to peace and security (Article
23) and
 "a generally satisfactory environment"
(Article 24).
we live, or to protect us being
forced from where we live
without good reason.
Respect for private life
protects our personal
freedoms, including respect
for our sexuality, the right
not to be placed under
unlawful surveillance, or for
us not to have personal
information spread about us
against our will.
Respect for correspondence
allows for us to communicate
with others freely and in full
privacy.
Article 9 – freedom of
thought, conscience and
religion
We all have the right to hold
religious and other beliefs.
We also have the right to
change these beliefs when
we choose. We should be free
to worship and express our
beliefs both in public and
private spaces.
Article 10 – freedom of
expression
We have the right for us to
hold our own opinions, to
express our views and ideas,
and to share information with
others.

This article can protect our

right to express views that
some may find unpopular or
offensive.

Article 11 – freedom of
assembly and association
We have the right to join with
others to protect our
common interests, to form
trade unions political parties.

Importantly this article also

exists to protect our right to
hold meetings, and to
assemble in groups to
peacefully protest.

Article 12 – right to marry

We have the right marry who
we want to, and to start a
family.
Article 13 – right to an
effective remedy
If our rights are violated then
we must be able to challenge
this through legal means.
The state must make
arrangement for this, and
there may be compensation
for any damage caused to us.

Article 14 – prohibition of
discrimination
Our rights should never be
denied to us due to any form
of discrimination, whether
due to our ‘sex, race, colour,
language, religion, political or
other opinion, national or
social origin, association with
a national minority, property,
birth or other status’.

Article 15 – derogation in
time of emergency
A state can choose to ignore
some specific rights in the
ECHR at a time of war or
other emergency threatening
the life of the nation, but any
removal of rights should be
limited to those absolutely
required by the situation. A
state must always make sure
these measures are
consistent with its obligations
under International Law.

Article 16 – restriction on
political activity of non-
nationals
A state can restrict the
political activity of non-
nationals, but this does not
apply to the nationals of EU
member states when in an EU
country.

Article 17 – prohibition of
abuse of rights
Nothing in the ECHR allows
for any state, group or
individual to destroy the
rights and freedoms that the
convention protects.

Article 18 – limitation on
use of restriction of rights
The restrictions allowed by
the convention should not be
applied for any other purpose
than those explained in the
convention itself.
 The Convention also contains
a list of protocols which make
amendments to the original
articles. These relate to the
right to property, education,
free elections and many
other issues. To read more
detail about the ECHR take a
look at the Council of
Europe’s webpages for PDF
versions of
the Conventionand Protocol.

These duties are contained in Article 29 and are Chapter V, with a nod to the
balance between rights and
as follows:
duties enshrined in the
DUTIES of  The duty to preserve the harmonious
earlier American Declaration
of the Rights and Duties of
development of the family.
the  To serve the national community by placing
both physical and intellectual abilities at its
Man, points out that
individuals have

individuals service.
 Not to compromise the security of the State.
responsibilities as well as
rights.

and  To preserve and strengthen social and

national solidarity.

peoples  To preserve and strengthen national

independence and the territorial integrity of
one's country and to contribute to its
defence.
 To work to the best of one's abilities and
competence and to pay taxes in the interest
of society.
 To preserve and strengthen positive African
cultural values and in general to contribute
to the promotion of the moral well-being of
society.
 To contribute to the best of one's abilities to
the promotion and achievement of African
unity.