Right to Democratic Governance in International Law and the Afr. Charter on Democracy, Election and Governance
Abstract
This article examines the right to democratic governance in international law and how it is has evolved as an ideal in human rights to a fully fledged right within the African legal and political setting. The central argument in this contribution is how precisely has the African Union and its member states translated their vision of democracy into a reality? The contribution argues that while democracy has been and continues to be a contested concept, the right to democratic governance has been reaffirmed through various international human rights instruments that collectively underpin the universality claim of this right. While African countries have been quick to state that democracy is culturally and socially relative and in most cases a western imposition, this contribution contends that, this narrative is flawed. It is flawed precisely because majority African countries have progressively accepted to be bound by a plethora of international human rights instruments that recognize the imperative of the right to democratic governance. Citing different instruments such as the Constitutive Act of the African Union, Democracy Charter, Declaration on the Unconstitutional Change of Government and NEPAD Declaration and others, the article contends that democratic governance can no longer be attributed to Western imposition rather it inheres in the values African countries have adopted and accepted to be bound. The article concludes by noting that, despite this textual recognition, it is only through genuine commitment by African leaders and elites to uphold democratic values as reflected in these instruments that African people can realize right to democratic governance as enshrined in various instruments that have been adopted in their name