In this section, you will find the following topics:

 
Normative advances

While the 2005 World Summit Outcome Document was a historic step, by 2000, African states had already enshrined principles echoing the Responsibility to Protect into law. The founding document of the AU,the Constitutive Act signed by Member States in 2000, represents the switch from the ‘non-interference’ approach of the Organization of African Unity (OAU) to the ‘non-indifference’ approach of the AU. The AU’s Constitutive Act defines the core objectives of the Union as the promotion of peace, security and stability and the promotion and protection of “human and people’s rights”. It also identifies the “respect for democratic principles, human rights, the rule of law and good governance”, the “respect for the sanctity of human life” and “condemnation and rejection of impunity” among the central values. Most importantly, in Article 4 (h) of the Constitutive Act, AU member states embracedthe “right of the Union to intervene in a Member State pursuant to a decision of the Assembly in respect of grave circumstances, namely war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity.”

Equally significant, in March 2005, at its 7^th Extra Ordinary Summit of the Heads of States and Government of the African Union, African governments endorsed the Responsibility to Protect in a report known as “Ezulwini Consensus”. The report recognizes the authority of the Security Council to authorize the use of force in situations of genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and ethnic cleansing and insists that in such cases regional organizations in areas of proximity to conflicts should be empowered to take action.

The AU Constitutive Act and the Ezulwini Consensus were important milestones that set the stage for support of Paragraphs 138-139 during the World Summit, and display the inherent commitment of the AU to the protection of civilians.  At the World Summit, African states, such as Rwanda, Tanzania and South Africa were crucial supporters of the Responsibility to Protect. Their support influenced other governments in the region to endorse paragraphs 138-139 in the World Summit Outcome Document. To see what African government have said on the Responsibility to Protect since 2005: click here

These embraces, as well as the creation of the African Court of Justice and Human Rights (recently formed through the merger of the African Court of Justice and the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights) and the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, displays the commitment of the AU to make the protection of human rights a defining principle. The challenge now facing the AU is how these principles, powers and mechanisms can be harnessed to both prevent and halt atrocity crimes in Africa, against the background of complex political and economic realities on the continent.

Entry points:
 

The African Union, consistent with its Constitutive Act and through its 2002 Protocol on the Establishment of the Peace and Security Council, has taken concrete steps for the establishment of a comprehensive continental architecture for the maintenance of peace and security, as one of the prerequisites for development and integration on the continent. This continental peace and security architecture includes the Peace and Security Council, the Continental Early Warning System, the Panel of the Wise, a Peace Fund and the African Stand-by force. The following section outlines some of the AU bodies which can take forward the prevention, reaction and rebuilding elements of R2P:

 

The Peace and Security Council was launched in May 2004 as a standing decision-making organ for the prevention, management and resolution of conflicts, supported by quiet diplomacy of the AU chairperson. The Peace and Security Council also includes a post-conflict reconstruction unit. The Protocol establishing the PSC does recall as one of its guiding principle “the right of the Union to intervene in a MemberState pursuant to a decision of the Assembly in respect of grave circumstances, namely war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity, in accordance with Article 4(h) of the Constitutive Act”.

The Establishment of an AU Early Warning System aims at facilitating prompt response and action to prevent the outbreak and escalation of conflict, working in cooperation with the five Regional Communities’ Early Warning System as building blocks for CEWS. The System includes an observation and monitoring centre known as “The Situation Room”, which is located at the Conflict Management Directorate and is responsible for data collection and analysis and uses early warning indicators;  

 

The African Union has inaugurated a panel of distinguished citizens on 18 December 2007 to promote efforts to prevent conflict on a continent that has seen more than its share of wars.  The Commission of the African Union established the panel of five eminent persons each serving a three-year term to represent the continent's five regions on conflict prevention issues. The Panel is to influence present and future African leaders to acquire a new culture of mediation and its members will be devoted to the prevention of conflict, supposedly free of political pressure.

The African Standby Force is an international, continental peacekeeping force including civilian and police components for deployment in times of crisis in Africa. The force will be based on five regional brigades to be established by each of the sub-regional organizations (ECOWAS, SADC, IGAD, ECCAS and UMA). Some progress has already been made both at the continental and sub-regional level to operationalize the ASF, and the international community is providing continued support where required and requested. The Force will be operational by 2010.

 

In addition, the following bodies of the AU offer additional entry points for R2P:

 

AU Assembly: The Assembly gives directives to the Executive Council, the PSC and the Commission on the management of conflicts, wars, emergency situations and the restoration of peace. The Assembly decides on intervention in a MemberState with respect to war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity.              

AU Commission: The Commission is the Secretariat of the Union. Relevant departments within the Commission include the Department for Peace and Security and the Department for Political Affairs, which promotes good governance, rule of law and human rights.

 

AU Peace and Security Directorate: The Commission’s Peace and Security Directorate engages in mediation and resolution of conflicts, assists in post-conflict reconstruction and prepares Standard Operation Procedures for AU deployments.

 

AU Peace and Security Committee: The Peace and Security Committee of the Economic, Social and Cultural Council (ECOSOCC) was established as a key operational mechanism of ECOSOC to formulate opinions and provide inputs into the policies and programmes of the African Union regarding conflict anticipation, prevention, management and resolution, use of child soldiers, illicit proliferation of small arms and light weapons, as well as post-conflict reconstruction and peace building, among other issues.

The Commission is officially charged with three major functions: the protection of human and peoples’ rights, the promotion of human and peoples’ rights and the interpretation of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ rights. In November 2007, the African Commission on Human and Peoples Rights at its 42nd Ordinary Session in Congo Brazzaville passed a Resolution on “Strengthening the Responsibility to Protect in Africa”.

 

The Commission is tasked with promoting and protecting human rights in Africa and the resolution refers to the AU’s Constitutive Act, the Ezulwini Consensus, the ICISS report and the World Summit Outcome Document. This resolution complements the work that the NGO Forum on the ACHPR had been doing the previous year, resulting in the passage of an NGO resolution  endorsing R2P in May 2007.

II. Additional regional instruments:

Southern African Development Community (SADC)

The SADC Treaty contains several provisions relevant to R2P: Article 5 provides that the promotion and defense of peace and security is a core objective of the Community; Article 4 requires that Member States act in accordance with the principles of human rights, democracy and the rule of law; and, with particular resonance for R2P, Article 21 urges the Community to cooperate beyond their collective borders in the areas of politics, diplomacy, international relations and peace and security. SADC has a Protocol on Politics, Defense and Security Cooperation, which allows the Community’s Organ on Politics, Defense and Security to intervene in situations of intra/inter state conflicts.

 

SADC also has early-warning capacity through its Regional Early Warning System (REWS) and intervention capacity through the SADC Standby Brigade, although a lack of resources and political will has been preventing these mechanisms from proper implementation. SADC’s legal architecture also includes a Tribunal, with jurisdiction over controversies involving the interpretation or application of the SADC Treaty, Protocols and other Community instruments and actions of Community institutions. It applies Community law as reflected in the Treaty, Protocols and other community instruments but also has a mandate to develop its own jurisprudence by drawing on general principles of international law and the laws of Member States.

Economic Community Of West African States (ECOWAS)

ECOWAS has structures, protocols and instruments to address issues of peace and security in the region, including the ECOWAS Commission, the Community Parliament and Court of Justice.

 

The ECOWAS Commission consists of a number of Commissions focused on issues of peace and security and the protection of civilians. For instance, the Commission for Political Affairs, Peace and Security consists of the Early Warning and Observation Centre, and the unit on Peacekeeping and Security.

 

In January 2008, ECOWAS Heads of States and Governments adopted the ECOWAS Conflict Prevention Framework (ECPF). This progressive framework seeks to:

-         Mainstream conflict prevention into ECOWAS’s policies and programmes;

-         Strengthen capacity within ECOWAS to pursue concrete and integrated conflict prevention and peacebuilding initiatives through ECOWAS institutions including the Council of the Wise and Special Mediators;

-         Strengthen awareness, capacity and anticipation within member states and civil society as principal constituencies and actors in conflict prevention and peacebuilding.

 

The ECPF clearly mentions that ECOWAS has been imbued with necessary “supranational” powers to act on behalf of and in conjunction with member states, the AU and the UN to protect human security in three distinct ways, namely:

-         The Responsibility to Prevent: Which involves actions taken to address the direct and root causes of intra and inter state conflicts that put populations at risk;

-         The Responsibility to React: Which are actions taken in response to grave and compelling humanitarian disasters;

-         The Responsibility to Rebuild: Which are actions taken to ensure recovery, reconstruction, rehabilitation and reconstruction in the aftermath of violent conflicts, humanitarian and natural disasters.

 

One of the key areas covered within the ECPF is Conflict Early Warning and Response, which will be implemented through the ECOWAS Conflict Early Warning and Response mechanism (ECOWARN). A distinctive relationship exists between civil society groups and ECOWAS, most specifically in coordinating responses to emerging situations between ECOWAS and civil society. The West African Network for Peacebuilding (WANEP), for instance, had an important role as an implementing partner of ECOWARN.

The East African Community (EAC)

The EAC, in its Treaty, upholds the “recognition, promotion and protection of human and peoples rights in accordance with the provisions of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights”. The EAC has presented in April 2008 its second draft Protocol on
Peace and Security, in which the Partner States re-affirm their faith in the purposes and principles of, among others, the Constitutive Act of the African Union. Also, in Article 5, the Protocol specifically mentions that Partner States shall establish an EAC Early
Warning System in order to facilitate the anticipation and early responses to prevent, contain and manage conflict and crisis situations. Moreover, the 2006-2010 Development Strategy provided the development of strategies and programs aimed at the promotion and protection of human rights in East Africa.

The International Conference of the Great Lakes (ICGLR)

The International Conference of the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR), through its Pact on Security, Stability and Development in the Great Lakes Region, deals with aspects of R2P’s three stages of responsibilities (prevent, react, rebuild) in at least five of its ten Protocols, including its Protocol on on-Aggression and Mutual Defence, which explicitly acknowledges Member States’ responsibility to protect populations from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity, and in its Protocol on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity.

III.  Civil Society Consultations in Africa

Civil society and non-governmental organizations have a very important role to play in the implementation of RtoP. In 2008, WFM-IGP (host of the ICRtoP Secretariat) held a series of global consultations in Asia, Africa, Latin America and Europe. You may also find the outcomes and presentations of three roundtables held in Africa at the links below: 

Kampala, Uganda: 17-18 April 2008
Gauteng, South Africa: 29-30 April 2008
Accra, Ghana: 30-31 July 2008
 

See the outcomes of all global roundtables in our January 2009 publication Civil Society Perspectives and Recommendations for Action.

For more events organized by civil society in Africa, see related documents tab (civil society) above.

IV. Crises in Africa
To view more on crises in Africa where RtoP has been invoked or refered to, please see our Crises page