House Chairperson, hon members, the Organisation of African Unity's Assembly of heads of African states and of governments met in July 1979 in Monrovia, Liberia, to discuss a preliminary draft on the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights. Two years later, in July 1981, they adopted the draft document and exactly 23 years ago today, on 21 October 1986, the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights came into force.
This noble idea of a charter came with the promise of hope for the promotion of human dignity for the peoples of Africa. It was supposed to be the onset of a new dawn for the protection of human rights, freedom, justice and equality on a continent that had experienced some of the most deplorable and atrocious violations of human rights the world had ever seen.
Ironically, the host country for those preliminary discussions of the charter, Liberia, several years later, was to be the scene of one of the most brutal civil wars ever seen in Africa, which claimed the lives of thousands of people and maimed and displaced several thousand others within and outside the borders of that country. Today, as we all know, the instigator and architect of that atrocity, Charles Taylor, former President of Liberia, is facing various charges for crimes committed against humanity at the International Criminal Court at The Hague.
In article 2, the charter of the then OAU promises to eradicate all forms of colonialism from Africa, to co-ordinate and intensify co-operation and efforts to achieve a better life for the people of Africa and to promote international co-operation, having due regard to the UN charter.
Two decades later, can we rightly say that the charter has changed the lives of the people of Africa? In my view, the answer is a resounding "no". This is because very few of the countries on this continent can claim to have lived up to the promise to uphold the rule of law and to respect people's rights. If anything, in my view, the charter was a false promise to the millions of Africans who have perished over the years and for those who today continue to suffer at the hands of those who profess to be their leaders.
In a number of cases, human rights violations arise because of the failure of the state to provide adequate security and protection to its own citizens, which results in these violations. However, in most cases, it is actually the state itself that is the perpetrator of serious human rights abuses and violations.
In 2003, the UN Commission on Human Security observed that the state remains the fundamental purveyor of security, but often fails to fulfil its security obligations and at times has even become a source of threat to its own people.
Ultimately, such a state has characteristics that define it as a "failed state". A "failed state" is one that has failed to provide some of the basic conditions and responsibilities of a sovereign state.
Noam Chomsky, in his book of 2006 called Failed States: The Abuses of Power and Assault on Democracy, identifies four characteristics that define a failed state, namely: One, the loss of control over its territory; two, erosion of legitimate authority to make collective decisions; three, the inability to provide reasonable public services such as education, health care and other public amenities; and four, the inability to interact with other states as a full member of the international community. Other conditions include widespread corruption, criminality, refugees or displaced persons and involuntary movement of people and a sharp economic decline.
In 2007, the Mo Ibrahim Foundation recognised that there is a connection between good governance and sustainable development and introduced an index which ranks the performance of sub-Saharan countries. These are graded on factors such as security, levels of corruption and respect for human rights. This view is supported by the former Prime Minister of Portugal and current President of the European Commission, who says that "Sustainable development requires states to be legitimate in the eyes of their citizens and to deliver the core functions of states."
According to the Mo Ibrahim Foundation, in 2009, seven of the 10 failed states of the world were found in Africa. These include Somalia, Zimbabwe, Sudan, Chad, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Central African Republic and Guinea. On the other hand the foundation listed Mauritius, the Seychelles and Botswana as the best governed countries in Africa. [Time expired.]