Introduction

The practice of appointing special rapporteurs to explore the human rights situation, either in a particular State or pertaining to a particular theme, has become a well-established feature of the UN human rights machinery, and ranks among its most innovative achievements. It is, then, no surprise to find that it has been adopted within other systems of human rights protection, including the African regional mechanism. In its relatively short existence, the African Commission has appointed six special rapporteurs on thematic issues: one on extrajudicial executions; one on prisons and other conditions of detention; one on women's rights; one on refugees, asylum seekers and internally displaced persons; another on human rights defenders in Africa; and a final one on freedom of expression. It has not created any country-specific special rapporteurs, but this is hardly surprising. Unlike the UN Commission on Human Rights, the African Commission has an explicit treaty-based competence to examine the situation on a country-by-country basis through the Charter's reporting procedures. Further, a number of ancillary country-specific activities are implicitly addressed through the promotional mandate of the Commission, which is exercised by allocating responsibility for particular countries to individual Commissioners and by its promotional and protective visits to States.

On first glance, then, the record of the Commission is impressive.