At the 27th Ordinary Session of the African Union (AU) Assembly of Heads of State and Government held on 17-18 July 2016 in Kigali, Rwanda, the AU adopted “Declaration of the Assembly on the Theme of the Year 2016” (Declaration Assembly/AU/Decl.1/(XXVII)Rev.1) [read Declaration here]. In this document, the AU Assembly, among other things:
- Declared the next ten years as “the Human and Peoples’ Rights Decade in Africa” (Ref. paragraph 2 of the Declaration);
- Called upon the African Union Commission and African Union Organs with a human rights mandate to develop a ten-year Action and Implementation Plan to give effect to the broad and specific directives given within the Declaration (Ref. paragraphs 2, 3, 10, 11 and 12,and in the Declaration generally);
- Requested the African Union Commission to report regularly on the implementation of this Declaration.
In this regard, the African Union Commission, the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights, the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights and the African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (collectively referred to as the African Union Organs with a human rights mandate) have embarked upon a process to develop the African Human Rights Action and Implementation Plan 2017-26. The African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights is taking the lead in engagement of Member States and other stakeholders, on behalf of the said African Union Organs with a human rights mandate.
