The African system on Human and Peoples' Rights, quasi-constructivism, and the possibility of peacebuilding within African states

Author: Obiora Chinedu Okafor

Source: The International Journal of Human Rights, Volume 8, Number 4, Winter 2004 , pp. 413-450(38)

Publisher: Routledge, part of the Taylor & Francis Group

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Abstract:

This article examines the influence that IHIs (such as the African System on Human and Peoples' Rights) can exert within states, with the facilitative work of local popular forces, and relates that to the possibility of valuable IHI contributions to peacebuilding within deeply fragmented African states. Of all the existing approaches to the study of IHIs, constructivism comes the closest to accounting for the highly significant incidences of IHI-fostered (and popular forces-facilitated) 'correspondence' that occurs outside the 'compliance radar'. In this sense the article is a contribution to the growing constructivist human rights and institutional literature sets. In particular the article explores the brighter possibilities for peacebuilding thinking and practice that are revealed by a broader and less conventional analysis of the African system's continuing engagement with elements of the local popular forces that operate within Nigeria.

Document Type: Research article

DOI: 10.1080/1364298042000283576

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