PART A: Background to the African Regional Human Rights System I. Institutional Development: From OAU to AU As in other regional human rights systems, African inter-governmental institutions have adopted regional mechanisms relevant to the prohibition against torture in Africa. The attitudes of these institutions to human rights generally and, in particular, to the prohibition against torture have evolved in the light of regional political values that have changed since the independence of most African States in the 1960s. The relevant regional inter-governmental institutions in Africa are the Organization of African Unity (OAU) (1963 - 2001/2) and the African Union (AU) (since 2001/2). It is necessary briefly to introduce these two institutions. The OAU was established in May 1963 under a Charter with treaty status adopted by the then newly independent African States.1 Among its objectives, the OAU Charter mandated the African States in the OAU ‘to coordinate and intensify their cooperation and efforts to achieve a better life for the peoples of Africa’2 and ‘to promote international cooperation, having due regard to the Charter of the United Nations and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights’.3 However, the OAU Charter also required Member States to abide by a number of bedrock principles, including the principle of sovereign equality of all Member States and the principle of non-interference in the internal affairs of States.4 The OAU Charter established the Assembly of Heads of State and Government (‘AHSG’ or ‘Assembly’) as the ‘supreme organ of the Organization’.5 The Assembly met once a year and was composed - as its name suggests - of Heads of African Member States and Governments. Its resolutions were carried by a two-thirds majority of the Members.6 Other principal institutions included a Council of Ministers and a General Secretariat. The Secretariat was established in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia under the administrative leadership of a Secretary-General. The Council of Ministers consisted of ministers of foreign affairs, who met twice annually and prepared the agenda of the AHSG. The Secretariat was given responsibility for the operations of the OAU.7 It supported the operations of both the OAU and of regional human rights institutions in Africa.8 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Charter of the Organization of African Unity, adopted on 25 May 1963, Addis Ababa (Ethiopia), entered into force on 13 September 1963, United Nations Treaties Series (UNTS) 479, p. 39, reprinted in International Legal Material (I.L.M.) 2, 766 (1963) [hereinafter ‘OAU Charter’]. Ibid., Article II(1)(b). Ibid., Article II(1)(e); Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted and proclaimed by UN General Assembly Resolution 217A (III) of 10 December, 1948, UN Doc. A/810 at 71 (1948). OAU Charter, supra note 1, Articles III(1)-(2). Ibid., Articles VII(1), VIII. Ibid., Article X(2). Ibid., Article VII. The OAU only adopted rules on consultative arrangements with civil society organisations in 1993. 19