The right to development (RTD) seeks to address global inequities hidden in world politics and global institutions through the game of influences played by powerful actors. This book examines how the African continent protects the right to development, examining the nature of the RTD and controversies surrounding it and how it is implemented. Th

This book explores the nexus between natural resources ownership and the right to development in Africa. The right to sovereignty over natural resources and the right to development are recognised and protected in an extensive framework of international, regional and domestic instruments. They guarantee people's entitlement to fully and freely utilise their natural resources as a means of subsistence and for economic, social and cultural development. Yet, despite the abundance of natural resources in Africa a majority of the people on the continent remain largely impoverished. This book articulates the central argument that to achieve the right to development in Africa requires appropriate governance of the continent’s natural resources to which the people of Africa are guaranteed sovereign ownership. With case study illustrations from Zimbabwe, Ghana, Ethiopia and the Democratic Republic of Congo, chapters explore the normative measures, specific guarantees and community entitlements to natural resources for the realisation of the right to development. The book will be an invaluable guide to scholars and postgraduate students of Natural Resources, Development and African studies as well as policymakers and practitioners in these areas.

The right to development (RTD) seeks to address global inequities hidden in world politics and global institutions through the game of influences played by powerful actors. The negative impacts of the Atlantic slave trade, colonialism, and the subjugation of Africa through globalisation and its institutions are key factors that have caused Africa and African people claiming their RTD. This book examines how the African continent protects the right to development, examining the nature of the RTD and controversies surrounding it and how it is implemented. The book then goes onto explore the RTD at the regional level including through the jurisprudence of the African Commission and the African Court on Human Rights, at the sub-regional level including in sub-regional courts and tribunals, at the national levels through case studies and through the African Union governance institutions. Through this examination, the author unveils what are the prospects and challenges to the realisation of the RTD in Africa.

In The Right to Development in Africa, Carol Chi Ngang provides a conceptual analysis of the human right to development with a decolonial critique of the requirement to have recourse to development cooperation as a mechanism for its realisation. In his argumentation, the setbacks to development in Africa are not necessarily caused by the absence of development assistance but principally as a result of the lack of an operational model to steer the processes for development towards the highest attainable standard of living for the peoples of Africa. Basing on the decolonial and capability theories, he posits for a shift in development thinking from dependence on development assistance to an alternative model suited to Africa, which he defines as the right to development governance.

The African human rights system has undergone some remarkable developments since the adoption of the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights, the cornerstone of the African human rights system, in June 1981. The year2011 marked the 30th anniversary of the adoption of the African Charter. It also marked 25 years since the African Charter entered into force on 21 October 1986.This book aims to provide reflections on most of the major human rights issues in the past 30 years of the African human rights system in practice and discussion on the future: the African Charter s impact and contribution to the respect, protection and promotion of human rights in Africa; the contemporary challenges faced by the African Human rights system in responding adequately to the demands of rapidly evolving African societies; and how the African human rights system can be strengthened in the future to ensure that the human rights protected in the African Charter, as developed in the jurisprudence of the African Commission since the Commission was inaugurated in 1987, are realised in practice.The chapters in this volume bring together the work of 20 human rights scholars and practitioners, with expertise in human rights in Africa, under the following general themes: rights and duties in the African Charter; rights of the vulnerable under the African system; implementation mechanisms for human rights in Africa; and towards an effective African regional human rights system.

The last couple of decades has not only witnessed an increased convergence between human rights and development but also a significant shift towards rights-based approaches to development, including especially responsiveness to the fact that development in itself is a human right guaranteed to be enjoyed by all peoples. This edited volume of peer-reviewed papers constitutes the first product resulting from the annual international conference series on the right to development, organised by the Centre for Human Rights, University of Pretoria, and the Thabo Mbeki African Leadership Institute at the University of South Africa. It explores the complex nature of the right to development from a diversified perspective, including from a conceptual, thematic, country and regional points of view. Conceived with the purpose to overshadow dominant economic growth approaches to development, the perspectives on the right to development articulated in this publication seek to locate the developmentalist discourse within the framework of accountability and people-centred development programming, necessitating appropriate policy formulation to ensure the constant improvement in human well-being. The book is written with the aim to reach out to researchers, academics, practitioners and policy makers who desire an in-depth understanding of the right to development as it applies universally.

This book is devoted to the 25th anniversary of the United Nations Declaration on the Right to Development. It contains a collection of analytical studies of various aspects of the right to development, which include the rule of law and good governance, aid, trade, debt, technology transfer, intellectual property, access to medicines and climate change in the context of an enabling environment at the local, regional and international levels. It also explores the issues of poverty, women and indigenous peoples within the theme of social justice and equity. The book considers the strides that have been made over the years in measuring progress in implementing the right to development and possible ways forward to make the right to development a reality for all in an increasingly fragile, interdependent and ever-changing world.