¹ OAU doc. OAU/CAB/LAG/67/3/Rev.5, reprinted in (1964) 3 I.L.M 1116.Google Scholar

² The last state to ratify the African Charter was Eritrea. Morocco is not a member state of the OAU, but the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic is.

³ Art. 62 of the African Charter.

⁴ See on this aspect, Makau Matua, “The African Human Rights Court: A two-legged stool?”, (1999) 21 Human Rights Quarterly 342, at 349.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

⁵ As in the case of, for example, the Human Rights Committee.

⁶ As in the case of, for example, the Human Rights Commission.

⁷ As Welch, C. E., Protecting Human Rights in Africa, Philadelphia, 1995, 154, suggests.Google Scholar

⁸ Adopted in Libreville, Gabon, in April 1988, and contained in Annex IV of the African Commission's First Annual Activity Report. In its resolution, the African Commission noted that “it is difficult to see which other organ of the OAU could accomplish this work”.

⁹ See the African Commission's Second Annual Activity Report, para. 20.

¹⁰ At its fourth session. The full text of these guidelines was attached to the African Commission's Second Annual Activity Report, as Annex XII (“Guidelines for National Periodic Reports”).

¹¹ See Viljoen, F., “Review of the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights: 21 October 1986 to 1 January 1997”, in Heyns, C. (ed.), Human Rights in Africa 1997. The Hague, 1999, 47 at 96.Google Scholar

¹² For a complete list of overdue reports as at 1 January, 1997, see Viljoen, op. cit., 93–94. For discussions about reporting under the African Charter, see e.g. Gaer, F. D., “First fruits: Reporting by states under the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights”, (1992) 10 Netherland Quarterly of Human Rights 29CrossRefGoogle Scholar and Danielsen, A.. The State Reporting Procedure under the African Charter, Copenhagen 1994.Google Scholar

¹³ At its 16th session, the African Commission authorized the Danish Centre for Human Rights to publish the transcripts of the examination of state reports that far. These were published by the Centre in 1995.

¹⁴ Held in Kigali, Rwanda, from 1 15 November, 1999.

¹⁵ For a more elaborate discussion, see Viljoen, op. cit., 95–102.

¹⁶ Held in Bujumbura, Burundi, from 26 April–5 May 1999.

¹⁷ See art. 65 of the African Charter: “For each of the States that will … adhere to the … Charter after its coming into force, the Charter shall take effect three months after the date of deposit by that State of its instrument of … adherence”.

¹⁸ In particular, from the Centre for Human Rights, University of Pretoria, and the Centre for Applied Legal Studies, University of the Witwaterstrand.

¹⁹ During her presentation of the report, the Deputy Minister of Justice referred to a “slight misunderstanding”, and apologized for the absence of a South African delegation.

²⁰ The head of delegation.

²¹ “Questions answered by the Deputy Minister following on South Africa's initial country report”, at 4 of typed manuscript.

²² See e.g. the comments in the Commission's 12th Annual Activity Report, in which it expressed “satisfaction at the quality of the reports submitted and the dialogue thus established … and encouraged the states to continue their efforts” (AHG/215 (XXXV), para. 15).

²³ See para. 16 of the Grand Bay (Mauritius) Declaration and Plan of Action (OAU doc. CONF/HRA/DECL (I)).

²⁴ This is in fact provided for under the Rules of Procedure of the Commission. Rule 85(3) states as follows: “If, following the consideration of the reports, … the Commission decides that the State has not discharged some of its obligations under the Charter, it may address all general observations to the State concerned as it may deem necessary”. Rule 86(2) further provides for the communication “to States parties to the Charter for comments, its general observations made following the consideration of the reports”.

²⁵ Examination of State Reports vol. I to V. published by the Danish Centre for Human Rights.Google Scholar

²⁶ See Rule 84(2) of the Rules of Procedure of the African Commission.

²⁷ This is also the procedure adopted by UN human rights treaty bodies, such as the Human Rights Committee.

²⁸ This is in line with the procedure adopted by the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. It has, for example, scheduled such a review in respect of Senegal for August 1999, after that country had not submitted its 11th to 14th reports. The 11th report was already due in 1993.

²⁹ The Commission has appointed three Special Rapporteurs—on Prisons and Prison Conditions in Africa, on Extra-judicial, Summary and Arbitrary Killings in Africa and on the Rights of Women in Africa.

³⁰ This has been done in a number of cases, including Mauritania. Nigeria, Senegal and Sudan. The competence to undertake these missions is derived from art. 46 of the Charter, which allows the Commission to resort to “any method of investigation”. This provision seems to be broad enough too allow the measures proposed here as well.

³¹ Examination of State Reports, vol. 1, 1995, at 31.Google Scholar

³² The representative was already absent from the 17th session. At its 25th session, the Commission adopted a resolution, requesting the Assembly to invite the Seychelles to abide by the Charter (AHG/215 (XXXV), Annexure IV). At the 26th session, the delegation was again absent. The Commission once again deplored the fact that Seychelles had not sent any delegate to present its report. Examination of the report was deferred to the 27th session (see Final Communiqué of the 26th session of the African Commission, DOC/OS(XXVI) 150).