A House with Two Rooms - The Advocates for Human Rights

(i.e., complaints) may also be sent to the African Commission under certain narrow, well-defined
circumstances. 127 Finally, the African Commission is charged with issuing a report detailing its efforts
every two years. 128
ii. Additional African Regional Instruments
Protocols and subject-specific charters also regulate human rights in Africa. For example, the
African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child was adopted in 1990 and entered into force
in 1999; it spells out a long list of children’s rights and establishes an African Committee of Experts
on the Rights and Welfare of the Child. 129 It defines a child as any person below the age of 18 years
(Art. 2) and enumerates rights, including the right to an education (Art. 11), protection against child
abuse, torture (Art. 16), economic exploitation (Art. 15), and sexual exploitation (Art. 27). The treaty
also calls upon States Parties to ensure respect for international humanitarian law pertaining to the
child and to “ensure that no child shall take a direct part in hostilities and refrain in particular, from
recruiting any child” (Art. 22). It also ensures that the child refugees or children seeking refugee
status are accorded protection and assistance as provided for by the treaty and international law (Art.
23). Also, any child who is deprived of a family environment, whether permanently or temporarily, is
to be afforded protection and assistance (Art. 25). Liberia ratified the African Charter on the Rights
and Welfare of the Child in 2007.
A specific African convention also deals with women’s rights and refuge problems. 130 The Protocol
to the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa enumerates
several rights and obligations of States Parties. It requires States Parties to eliminate discrimination
against women (Art. 2), as well as ensure equal protection for women before the law (Art. 8), equal
rights in marriage (Art. 6), and women’s increased participation in the peace process (Art. 10). The
Protocol also requires States Parties to respect international humanitarian law, particularly with regard
to women, and to protect civilians, including women, during armed conflict (Art. 11). The protocol
affirms the right of women to life, respect and security of person (Art. 4), and it requires States
Parties to pass laws prohibiting violence against women and to punish perpetrators who violate such
laws (Art. 4(2)(a), (e)). Liberia ratified the protocol in 2007.
Finally, a protocol to the African Charter establishes a regional court, the African Court on Human
and Peoples’ Rights, to rule on compliance issues raised under the African Charter. 131 The African
Court on Human and People’s Rights, created in 2004, is composed of eleven judges, and is currently
in the process of merging with the African Court of Justice, following a decision by the African
Convention states at a June 2004 summit. Liberia has only signed the African Court on Human and
People’s Rights, which it did in 1998.
IV. Major Instruments of International Humanitarian Law
534