From Context to Content of Human Rights: The Drafting History of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights and the Enigma of Article 7

Abstract

The context that leads to human rights treaties being drafted or adopted has garnered much attention, especially concerning the developments in the 1970s. However, the link to the content of those human rights treaties is often missing in the analysis. In addition, less attention has been paid to one of the major developments at the time: The adoption of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights. The paper engages with these gaps from the perspective of the drafting process of the African Charter, using the unique wording of article 7 to illustrate four significant political and historical factors that helped determine its content.