Afr.j. polit. sci. (2000), Vol. 5 No. 1,92-104 
Human Rights Implications of 
African Conflicts 
OsitaAgbu* 
Abstract 
This paper addresses the very serious problem of human rights abuse in conflict 
situations in Africa. It revisits the various causes and nature the of human rights 
abuse during conflicts, and notes that within the context of armed conflict, human 
rights are joined with International Humanitarian law to establish protection for 
non-combatant who have been the major casualties during these conflicts. It 
concludes on the note that Africa must accede to the minimal standards of 
engagement for protection of human rights and possibly support this with the 
infusion of the African values of sense of community and dignity of the human 
person in the existing legal regime. 
Introduction 
Africa is caught in a wave of conflicts, many of them intractable, which have led 
to wanton abuse of human rights. The sources or causes of these conflicts are many, 
and have been addressed by many scholars. According to Deng et. al., (1991), for 
instance, Africa's conflicts arise from problems basic to all populations: the tugs 
and pulls of different identities, the differential distribution of resources and access 
to power, and competing definitions of what is right, fair and just. There have also 
been conflicts arising from boundary and territorial disputes; civil wars and 
conflicts ignited by external forces; conflicts that are rooted in colonial and racial 
South Africa; conflicts sparked by succession movements as in Angola, Western 
Sahara and Biafra of former Eastern Nigeria; and political as well as ideological 
conflicts (El-Ayouty and Zartman, 1984:103). The bottom line of it all, irrespective 
of particular source, is the tragic human suffering associated with the outbreak 
of conflict. The extreme atrocities observed during conflicts in Africa have evoked 
the universal indignation and the impetus to intervene in order to halt the carnage. 
1027-0353 © 2000 African Association of Political Science
Human Rights Implications of African Conflicts 93 
Instances which readily come to mind include the massacre during the civil war in 
Somalia, and the genocide in Rwanda. The extent of human suffering and 
insecurity in Somalia, for instance, is what compelled the international community 
to intervene. Before then, there was an outflow of some 800,000 refugees into 
neighbouring countries resulting in considerable human suffering. In the Rwanda 
case, no less than 760,000 people including foreign humanitarian workers and 
United Nations personnel lost their lives. About 2.5 million others were displaced 
and forced to seek refuge in squalid, disease-ridden and starvation-ravaged refugee 
camps (Enemuo, 1994). Blatant human rights abuses have also occurred in Liberia, 
Sierra Leone, Algeria and the Democratic Republic of Congo. In Sierra Leone, 
innocent citizens had their limbs cut off by rebel soldiers; even infants were not 
spared. This is in addition to the abduction of scores of women and young girls; 
rape, as well as arbitrary torture and killing of civilians. 
More than 30 wars have been fought in Africa since 1970, the majority of them 
being intra-state in origin and generating huge refugee flows and displacement of 
persons. During the 1980s alone, Africa was ridded by nine internal wars, 
numerous other instances of large-scale violent conflict and a cocktail of coups, 
riots and demonstrations. Of the nine wars, those in Sudan, Ethiopia, Angola, 
Mozambique and Uganda resulted in a high death toll, including civilian casualty 
in the region of 60,000-100,000 as reported for Angola, and a million or more for 
Sudan (Bender, 1989:24). At the beginning of 1990, more than 2.5 percent of all 
Africans were refugees, most of them fleeing from political violence. These 
included 4.7 million in need of assistance outside their home countries and another 
8.6 million internally displaced persons. Altogether they accounted for 43 percent 
of the global population of refugees (World Refugee Survey, 1989: 30). In 1996 
alone, 14 of the 53 countries of Africa were in armed conflict, accounting for more 
than half of all war-related deaths world-wide and resulting in more than 8 million 
refugees, returnees and displaced persons (Peters, 1999). Africa is currently 
"embroiled" in seventeen wars of which only one, the Ethiopia - Eritrea war is 
classified as inter-state. On the whole, about 8 million displaced persons and 
refugees have been thrown up by these wars (Hart, 1999: 10). The human rights 
implications of this development challenges the collective will of humanity to act.. 
Within the context of armed conflict, human rights are joined with International 
Humanitarian Law to give protection to civilians who have been the major 
causality in conflict situations. In terms of the modus operandi for concrete action 
consideration of this problem is at an early stage. Attempts to establish a firm basis 
for action were made in the Geneva Protocols of 1977, supplementing and refining 
the Geneva Conventions of 1949, and previously The Hague Conventions of 1899 
and 1907 (Almond, 1993). The concept of human rights which entails the 
recognition, respect and protection of the fundamental rights of human beings, 
because they are human beings, draws heavily on internationally accepted norms.
94 OsitaAgbu 
This has a crucial bearing on the quest for peace, democracy, development and 
justice in Africa. In Africa, the human rights project is faced with the particular 
challenge of the status of human rights in emergency situations and in post-conflict 
society building. The role of the state in the protection of human rights is important 
here as countries can no longer claim that the way they treat their citizens is an 
internal matter. The state's duty to protect the rights of its citizens is now owed not 
only to individuals within its jurisdiction but also to the international community 
as a whole. There is thus an organic link between human rights and international 
peace and security. 
Human Rights, Humanitarian Law and Conflicts 
Though related to each other, human rights law and international humanitarian law 
can be differentiated from each other. Basically, human rights revolves around the 
necessity to respect and protect the individual or group from violation of their 
fundamental rights especially by the state. It was after the Second World War that, 
as a reaction against the excesses of the Axis forces, human rights law became part 
of the body of public international law, making human rights law a supplement to 
the law protecting humanity from abuses in situations of war. 
On the other hand, international humanitarian law is that aspect of international 
law which deals with such matters as the use of weapons and other means of 
warfare in combat, and the treatment of war victims by the enemy. It deals with the 
direct impact of war on the life, personal integrity and liberty of human beings 
(Partsch, 1982: 215). A systematic development of humanitarian law in armed 
conflict is said to have originated not earlier than the second half of the 19th century 
when the need was felt to prevent wars by establishing methods of conciliation to 
humanize warfare and to protect the victims of armed conflicts (Ibanga, 1993). It 
is generally recognized that international humanitarian law and human rights 
norms have different origins, and apply in different situations humanitarian law 
during armed conflicts and human rights during peacetime. Nonetheless, these 
two, not only share a universal value, namely, that of humanity; they also have the 
common objective of protecting and safeguarding individuals in all circumstances 
(Grasser, 1998: 403). 
Since the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) which proclaimed and 
recognized the inalienable rights of individuals, personal dignity and equality, the 
UN has adopted the following principal legal instruments in the field of human 
rights. 
• The International Convention on Civil and Political Rights. 
• The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. 
• The International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial 
Discrimination. 
• The Convention of Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women.
Human Rights Implications of African Conflicts 95 
• The Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading 
Treatment or Punishment. 
• Convention on the Rights of the Child. 
Apart from the various UN resolutions calling for the protection of human rights 
during armed conflicts, the following legal instruments in the sphere of International 
Humanitarian Law have also been adopted: 
• the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide; 
• the four Geneva Conventions of 1949 for the prosecution of war crimes; 
• Protocol I additional to the Geneva conventions, and relating to the protection 
of victims of International Armed Conflicts; and 
• Protocol II additional to the Geneva Conventions, and relating to the protection 
of victims of non-international armed conflicts. 
Clearly, the two sets of legal instruments must be understood as an expression 
of the international community's determination to strengthen and protect the rights 
of the individual both in peacetime and during armed conflicts. 
The Post-Colonial State and Human Rights Protection 
No discourse on human rights and their protection either in peacetime or during 
armed conflicts would be complete without examining the nature of the African 
state, especially as this pertains to state-citizen relations and the potential for 
human rights abuses. We should take cognisance of the colonial past of the state, 
which was fundamentally sustained through force of arms, intimidation and 
oppression in order to understand the post-colonial state and its characteristics. 
African nationalist leaders inherited the structures of violence from the departing 
colonial authorities; and employed them to consolidate their own power. Statecitizen 
relations became fundamentally conflictual and tenuous, though they 
appeared normal during periods of relative economic and political stability. For 
instance, the abuse of human rights during military or autocratic rule in parts of the 
continent can be understood from the standpoint that when Africa's leaders 
assumed state power there had been no institutionalised or internalised procedures 
for winning and exercising political power; about what is legitimate purpose and 
what is not; for defining the limits of state action; and of the place of human rights, 
especially the rights of the individual in the political regime. The lack of acceptable 
parameters in state-society relations left a vacuum and ambiguity in the relations 
between the two spheres (Obiozor, et. aL, 1999: 6). Indeed, many post-independence 
leaders had been too familiar with colonial dictatorship to be democratic. 
The institution of political opposition in government, for example, was too strange 
not to be abused and consequently suppressed; and long reigning presidents and 
mono-parties became the rule rather than the exception. The result of these
96 OsitaAgbu 
developments was the flagrant abuse of human rights, whether during peacetime 
or in times of conflict. The worst abuses during Africa's 20-30 years of independence 
were committed in Uganda, Equatorial Guinea and Central African Republic 
in the 1970s under Idi Amin, Marcias Nguema and Emperor Bokassa, respectively. 
In many African countries, the citizens do not identify wholly with the state and 
are therefore willing to challenge it, sometimes violently. A state system that does 
not provide for the security and welfare of its citizens cannot expect legitimacy. 
Variously described as fragile, weak, soft, decaying, over swollen, prebendalist 
and even "lootocratic", the post-colonial African state is incapable of deli vering on 
the "social contract" with its citizens. It rather finds it easier and indeed more 
expedient to undermine the rights of its citizens justified as the exigencies of 
national unity and security. This is more so in times of conflict, during which the 
social order is disrupted and national security takes precedence at the expense of 
people's rights. According to Almond (1993: 145), these claims by states, if. 
misdirected, could lead to serious violations of human rights and the processes 
associated with the assertion and protection of human rights, and to the total. 
breakdown of the social order. 
Human Rights Abuses During Conflicts 
In Africa, the types of human rights abuse during conflicts vary from the fairly 
common occurrences such as torture, rape, murder, child labour and forced labour 
to more recent cases of genocide, mutilations, ethnic cleansing and the use of 
refugees as "human shield". Violence against women and children has become 
particularly horrendous. Women and children constitute over 70 percent of the 
world's most vulnerable; they suffer most during periods of conflict and war. 
Women in particular, are major victims in times of war or armed conflict. They 
experience conflict in completely different ways from men. War invariably 
exacerbates the inequalities that exist in different forms and to varying degrees. 
Women and girls are usually raped and sometimes forced into sexual servitude. For 
survivors, physical and social dislocation, injuries and trauma take a toll that may 
last a lifetime. 
Until recently, rape and sexual violence against women were regarded as an 
inevitable aspect of armed conflict, and seldom if ever were the culprits prosecuted 
(Chinkin, 1994: 326). This nonchalant attitude which still persists has been 
increasingly questioned and more pressure is being exerted by women's groups for 
more attention to be paid to this by the international community. The UN Special 
Rapporteur on violence against women in armed conflict, after hearing of the 
extent of sexual violence in the Rwandan conflict, was, in her words, "absolutely 
appalled that (in the face of such gross violations) the first indictment on the 
grounds of sexual violence at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda
Human Rights Implications of African Conflicts 97 
(ICTR) was issued only in August 1997, and then only after heavy international 
pressure from women's groups" (Coomaraswany, 1998). Although, sexual violence 
against women had been on the agenda of human rights bodies for some 
years, it was the recent Yugoslav conflict and the attendant human rights abuses 
that galvanized the international community into action. It led to the most 
significant development in humanitarian law attributable to the growing emphasis 
on women's rights, including protection against rape within the norm of grave 
breeches of international law (Kolb, 1998). 
Today, Africa is increasingly witnessing the involvement of children in internal 
wars. In the past decade, wars have killed more than 2 million children worldwide. 
Africa accounts for a significant number of these. Four million have been disabled, 
and 10 million traumatized (Hubert, 1999:11). Estimates suggests that there are 
300,000 children currently serving as combatants, sexual slaves, or slaves. In fact, 
some of the under-aged combatants have been used to commit the most atrocious 
crimes in countries like Liberia, Sierra Leone and Angola. In the face of such grave 
developments, the Report of the Working Group on a draft optional protocol to the 
convention of the Rights of the Child on recruitment or involvement of children in 
armed conflict was rather ambivalent. The preamble recalls "the obligation of each 
party to an armed conflict to abide by the provisions of International Humanitarian 
Law", while draft Article 3, paragraph 1 balances the moral (not legal) obligation 
not to recruit children under 18 with a legal obligation on states to prevent such 
recruitment. It states that: 
persons under the age of 18 years should not be recruited into armed groups, 
distinct from the armed forces of a state, which are parties to an armed 
conflict. State parties shall take all feasible measures to prevent such 
recruitment. 
Woman and child abuses apart, several and diverse human rights abuses have 
occurred during conflicts in South Africa, Sudan, Angola, Somalia, Chad, Algeria, 
Western Sahara, Uganda, Liberia and Sierra-Leone. The abuses range from 
extreme brutalities, torture, to murder. The refugee problem has also become acute, 
exacerbating human suffering and loss of basic rights. What can we make of the 
Rwanda genocide in 1994, for example, and the huge wave of refugees it generated 
resulting in about 2.5 million people fleeing to neighbouring countries. This 
growing human phenomenon must be regarded as a human tragedy in the light of 
the appalling suffering it produces (Ajulo, 1993:19). Indeed, it has been said, and 
rightly so, that everyone is a potential refugee in this age. 
The crisis in the Democratic Republic of Congo is another instance where the 
rights of innocent citizens have been severely compromised and abused. This 
situation was further compounded by the internationalization of the conflict
98 Osita Agbu 
involving the four neighbouring countries of Burundi, Uganda, Angola and 
Zimbabwe thereby further complicating resolution of the conflict. There are at 
present over one million refugees in Central Africa. The number is still growing as 
terrified civilians clamber onto boats on Lake Tanganyika to be taken to safety in 
Tanzania; others have been crossing from the west to escape both the renewed war 
in neighbouring Angola, and continued fighting in the Republic of Congo (The 
Guardian, 1999). 
Generally, refugees in Africa suffer untold hardship and abuses compared to 
other parts of the world. Perhaps this is because of the limited attention accorded 
African problems by the international community. For example, Congo recently 
accused Burundi of allegedly holding 750 refugees in harsh conditions after they 
fled shelling by Burundian troops. According to the Congolese Minister for Human 
Rights -Leonard She Okitundu - the refugees were kept under inhuman conditions 
in abandoned schools (The Guardian, 1999). Refugees, like all persons have 
certain basic human rights which are enshrined in the UN Charter and the Universal 
Declaration of Human Rights. 
These include the fundamental right to life, liberty, security of person, the 
protection of the law, freedom of thought, conscience and religion, and the right to 
own property. Refugees also have the right to freedom of movement. It is 
recognized that an influx of refugees always creates a security problem for the host 
country. This, and the need to safeguard the rights of the local population, may 
dictate restrictions on refugees (Agbu, 1995: 126). But such security imperatives 
of the host country should always take cognisance of the basic rights of refugees 
as well. 
Legal and Humanitarian Instruments 
In general, the international community's reaction to human rights abuses during 
situations of armed conflict has been based on the Geneva Conventions of 1949, 
the Geneva Protocols of 1977, and other related instruments. The four principal 
Geneva Conventions are: 
(a) Geneva Convention for the Amelioration of the condition of the wounded 
and sick in Armed Forces in the Field. 
(b) Geneva Convention for the Amelioration of the condition of the wounded, 
sick and shipwrecked members of the Armed Forces at Sea. 
(c) Geneva Convention relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War. 
(d) Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilians in times of 
War. 
The Protocols are, Protocol Additional to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 
1949, and relating to the protection of victims of international Armed Conflicts 
(Protocol 1), of 8 June 1977; and Protocol Additional to the Geneva Conventions
Human Rights Implications of African Conflicts 99 
of 12 August 1949, and relating to the protection of victims of Non-International 
Armed Conflicts (Protocol II), of 8 June 1977. 
In addition to these above, article 52( 1) of the UN Charter anticipated regional 
arrangements designed to foster international peace and security. Regional 
arrangements can be categorized among these protocols. The one that is important 
in addressing conflicts in Africa is the African Charter on Human and 
Peoples' Rights (ACHPR). Due to the very serious violations of human rights 
during armed conflicts, the OAU at its Monrovia Summit in 1979 directed the 
Secretary-General to initiate a process for developing an African convention on 
human rights. After preparatory meetings in Dakar and Banjul, the African 
Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights was finally adopted in 1981. The Charter 
entered into force on 21 October 1986. The Commission that was established 
under it held its first session on 2 November 1987 and adopted its Rules of 
Procedure at its second session on 13February 1988 (Brett, 1988). The Commission 
is expected to receive and investigate complaints from states which have 
signed the charter, and also from individuals. Over forty states are party to the 
African Charter. 
The Charter provides in Article 4, that "Human beings are inviolable. Every 
human being shall be entitled to respect for his life and integrity of his person. No 
one may be arbitrarily deprived of his rights". However, it is Article 5 that is more 
specific: it prohibits "... All forms of slavery, slave trade, torture and cruel, 
inhuman or degrading treatment". The ratification of the African Charter is 
significant in the efforts at protecting human rights in Africa. It is as important, in 
its own way, as the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights in the history of 
Europe (Carver, 1990). 
In retrospect, we find that the idea of an African Charter was canvassed in the 
late 70s, the period of the overthrow of Idi Amin, Jean-Bedel Bokassa and Macias 
Nguema. However, as a legal instrument, the African Charter has been criticized 
as being weak in some respects compared to the two UN covenants which give legal 
force to the Universal Declaration. Many rights are hedged with the qualification 
that they are to be enjoyed "under the law", as if the law could never be used to 
violate human rights. But it must be emphasised that with the numerous human 
rights abuses recorded in the ongoing conflicts on the continent, the Commission 
is indeed very relevant and has a lot of work to do in terms of investigating and 
punishing those responsible for human rights abuses. 
With respect to the special case of women, the Charter in Article 18(3) stipulates 
that "the state shall ensure the elimination of every discrimination against women 
and also ensure the protection of the rights of the women and the child as stipulated 
in international declaration and conventions". For instance, the four 1949 Geneva 
conventions and two 1997 protocols contains some 19 provisions that relate 
specifically to the rights of women. However, the scope of these rules is somewhat
100 OsitaAgbu 
limited and many of them are in fact designed to protect children (Arts. 50 and 132 
of the Fourth Geneva Convention). 
Apart from the Geneva conventions and protocols, and the ACPHR, various 
other instruments exist to prevent human rights violations. These include the 
convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (1948), 
Declaration on protection from torture (1975), Convention against Torture and 
other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (1948), Convention 
Relating to the Status of Refugees (1951) and Convention Relating to the Status of 
Stateless Persons (1954). With respect to the incidence of torture which has 
become a central concern of human rights law, the first international legal text 
specifically outlawing "torture" was the Universal Declaration (Article 5). Soon 
afterwards, the European convention on human rights in Article 3 also prohibited 
torture. In 1948, the UN convention prohibiting torture became the first binding 
international instrument exclusively dedicated to the struggle against one of the 
most serious and pervasive human rights violations of our time (Kolb, 1998:433). 
For instance, Article 3, common to the four Geneva conventions of 1949, includes 
on the list of minimum standards to be observed by all parties even in noninternational 
armed conflicts, a prohibition on "violence to life and person, in 
particular ... mutilation, cruel treatment and torture". Also, Protocol II prohibits 
"violence to the life, health and physical or mental well-being of persons, in 
particular ... cruel treatment such as torture, mutilation or any form of corporal 
punishment (Article 4, paragraph 2(a) of Protocol II, 1977). 
Other general human rights conventions on torture include, Article 7 of the 
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (CCPR), 19 December, 1996; Article 37(a) 
of the Convention on The Rights of the Child (CRC), 20 November, 1989; 
Article 5(2) of the American Convention on Human Rights (ACHR), 22 November 
1969; and Article 3 of the European Convention for The Protection of Human 
Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (ECHR), 4 November, 1950. Since torture is 
a fairly common occurrence during armed conflicts, Africa has also had its 
fairshare of such abuses in conflict situations, especially in countries such as 
Uganda, South Africa, Algeria, Equatorial Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. In as 
much as many of these instruments may apply to individual member states, the 
point remains that without the political will enhanced by the right political 
atmosphere, little will be achieved in terms of punishing violators of human rights 
in periods of armed conflicts. 
In the light of such occurrences, the ACHPR is a most welcome instrument in 
spite of its weaknesses. The challenge to African countries is to seek institutions 
congenial to African environment to check human rights abuses rather than 
wholesale imitation of western human rights institutions. 
On refugees and the need to protect their rights, the 1951 convention provides 
the most comprehensive codification of the rights yet documented at the global
Human Rights Implications of African Conflicts 101 
level. This was subsequently amended by the 1967 protocol. On the other hand, the 
Organisation of African Unity (OAU), sought to achieve the same goal through the 
1969 convention governing Specific Aspects of Refugee Problems in Africa 
(Changani, 1994:197). Since majority of African refugees are already vulnerable 
- children, women and the old armed conflicts further worsen their plight. Hence, 
particular attention should be paid to the protection and needs of these segments 
of the population. Whilst children are open to all kinds of abuse, women are 
vulnerable to rape before, during and after captivity. Children, for instance, are 
frequently subjected to some of the most abominable practices including torture, 
rape, detention, and conscription into military service; and they are usually victims 
of malnutrition, disease and separation from their families. Those who survive are 
likely to be traumatised for life. In Angola, Mozambique, Somalia, Sudan, Liberia 
and Sierra Leone, for example, armed conflict has produced child soldiers (Agbu, 
1995: 200). Indeed, the devastating nature of African conflicts has also made the 
young and able-bodied not only refugees but also victims of similar human rights 
violations. 
A Case for a Human Rights Court 
Is there a case for a human rights court in Africa? This question becomes very 
important when one considers the magnitude and nature of human rights 
violations during armed conflicts in Africa. Since independence in the 1960s 
most African countries, appear not to have built the capacity to ensure peace, 
order and good governance. As members of the human family, African countries 
must subscribe to an internationally prescribed minimum standard of behaviour, 
this is especially so as the principle of non-interference has become anachronistic 
and moribund. In fact, the reality today is that there are countries with no 
government or with a government that is only partially in control of their 
territories (Brett, 1998). On the one hand, large scale abuse of human rights and 
humanitarian law led to the setting up of the International Criminal Tribunal for 
Rwanda. This court has the power to prosecute those responsible for serious 
human rights abuses and violations of international humanitarian law, including 
genocide. The treaty establishing this court was adopted by 120 countries in July 
1998 in Rome. On the other hand, African people have always recognized the 
need to respect the rules of warfare. Thus, most of what are now embodied in 
international humanitarian instruments have from time immemorial formed an 
integral part of the cultural practices of many African peoples. For many 
traditional communities in Africa, perfidy and despoliation would remain 
forbidden practices in the conduct of warfare. Also, certain categories of persons 
like pregnant women, children, the aged and women generally must in no 
circumstance be killed by combatants (Ibanga: 137). Therefore, drawing heavily 
from African practices during warfare, it is possible to construct some minimal
102 OsitaAgbu 
standards of engagement for protecting human rights, and go further to put in 
place an enforcement mechanism. 
Though calls have been made for the formation of a human rights court in Africa, 
with suggested names such as African Court on Human Rights and Continental 
Court of Human Rights, I would like to believe that this project should start from 
the sub-regional level. This is because, it is important to have mutually acceptable 
economic and political understanding upon which a human rights enforcement 
mechanism can be built. The Economic Community of the West African States 
(ECOWAS), and the Southern African Development Community (SADC) have 
the potential to achieve this. In West Africa, there is already in place an economic 
and political integration process, i.e. ECOWAS and the ECOWAS Monitoring 
Force (ECOMOG), a regional security arrangement. In addition, there are also 
calls for a West African parliament, while the ECOWAS Travellers cheque is 
already in use. It is integration at these levels that can serve as a base for a strong 
and effective human rights enforcement institution. This same logic applies to the 
Southern African region and, perhaps, to the Maghreb. It is only after such a 
regional mechanism has functioned over a period of time that we can then think in 
terms of establishing an African Court of Human Rights. Of course, it is assumed 
that the material and human resources needed in terms of capacity building would 
be available. Basically, the development of the rules of human rights has always 
been inextricably linked with the necessary enforcement machinery, otherwise the 
whole process may lack the vitality to address the very basis of existence of such 
a human rights regime (Gye-Wado, 1991:227). It is therefore absolutely necessary 
for the various subregions to speedily negotiate the basis for the formation of a 
human rights court and proceed to institute it. 
Conclusion 
Generally, human rights abuses during conflicts in Africa have increased substantially 
and attracted the attention of the international community, as was in the case 
of Rwanda and Sierra-Leone. The post-colonial state, which is a replica of colonial 
coercive institutions, has contributed in no small measure in perpetuating human 
rights violation. But more worrisome are the kinds of repugnant abuse witnessed 
in areas of armed conflict. Such abuses go against the provisions of the laws 
governing the conduct of war, and the Geneva conventions, including the 
protocols. 
International Human Rights Laws and Humanitarian Law have universal 
validity. Nevertheless, the ACPHR is very relevant to the African condition though 
its provisions need to be enforced. To this end, there is the urgent need for the 
formation of a Human Rights Court beginning from the subregional level before 
its institutionalization continent-wide. Generally, there is the need to strengthen 
the place of legal norms as a guide to conduct during conflicts, and build the
Human Rights Implications of African Conflicts 103 
capacity for enforcing these norms. Africa should not be an exception, especially 
in view of the gravity of war crimes committed by belligerent. Indeed it appears that 
the various governments, Human Rights Non-government Organisations (NGOs), 
the African Commission and other agencies need to do a lot more in terms of human 
rights education. 
Since conflict is inevitable in relationship amongst human beings, those 
standards recognized as necessary for ensuring respect for humanity must be 
recognized and acceded to by all. For Africa, issues concerning human rights 
should be part and parcel of the quest for peace, democracy, development and 
justice. The provisions of the Universal Declaration, the Geneva Protocols and the 
ACPHR should be respected during periods of conflicts, while effort should be 
made to see how the African values of community and respect of the human person 
can be infused into the legal regime and used to reinvigorate the existing norms and 
enforcement instruments. 
Notes 
* Research Fellow, Department of Research and Studies, Nigerian Institute of 
International Affairs, Lagos. 
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