Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- List of abbreviations
- 1 The African human rights system, activist forces, and international institutions: an introduction
- 2 Conventional conceptions of international human rights institutions
- 3 Conventional conceptions of the African system for the promotion and protection of human and peoples' rights
- 4 The impact of the African system within Nigeria
- 5 The utilization of the African system within South Africa
- 6 Limited deployment of the African system within African states: further evidence and a general evaluation
- 7 Toward an extended measure of IHI effectiveness: a quasi-constructivist perspective
- 8 Conclusion
- Select Bibliography
- Index
4 - The impact of the African system within Nigeria
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 17 July 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- List of abbreviations
- 1 The African human rights system, activist forces, and international institutions: an introduction
- 2 Conventional conceptions of international human rights institutions
- 3 Conventional conceptions of the African system for the promotion and protection of human and peoples' rights
- 4 The impact of the African system within Nigeria
- 5 The utilization of the African system within South Africa
- 6 Limited deployment of the African system within African states: further evidence and a general evaluation
- 7 Toward an extended measure of IHI effectiveness: a quasi-constructivist perspective
- 8 Conclusion
- Select Bibliography
- Index
Summary
[I]t would be idle to claim that the Commission [and the system as a whole] has acquired or will ever command the spontaneity of compliance enjoyed by the Oracle of Delphi. However, any temptation to dismiss it as a worthless institution today must be regarded as premature, ill-informed, or both.
Chidi OdinkaluImaginative strategies for the activation of the Commission [and the system as a whole] demonstrate that the success of the mechanism [and the system] depends as much on activist forces and activists as it does on the members of the body.
Joe Oloka-OnyangoIntroduction
As Steiner and Alston have noted, many scholars have for long been perplexed by the difficulties associated with attempts to demonstrate the influence that international human rights institutions (IHIs), such as the African system for the promotion and protection of human and peoples' rights, might have exerted within particular domestic contexts. How, they have asked, does one go about the evaluation of the impact that an IHI such as the African system has exerted within a particular country? What would constitute “reasonably persuasive evidence” that an IHI, such as the African system, has influenced “the course of events in a given country,” or the behaviour of any or all of its domestic institutions?
The conventional approach to providing the sort of “answers” that Steiner and Alston want has been to seek, almost exclusively, material evidence of state compliance with the norms/decisions of such institutions.
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- Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2007