TY - CHAP
T1 - The Role of the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights in Promoting the Socio-Economic Rights of Migrants
AU - Nkrumah, Bright
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023.
PY - 2023
Y1 - 2023
N2 - In 1969, African leaders adopted the region’s first human rights instrument, the Organisation of the African Union Convention Governing the Specific Aspects of Refugee Problems in Africa. Over the next four decades, three key human rights treaties entered into force, expanding on the entitlements of refugees and asylum seekers (RAS). Despite these frameworks, the exclusion of RAS from social security interventions remains pervasive across many host African countries. This setback has driven a disproportionate percentage of this vulnerable population into abject deprivation, hunger and poverty. Against this backdrop, the central research question is: How can the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights (African Court) contribute to alleviating the socio-economic hardship of RAS? To this end, this chapter argues that the African Court could improve the socio-economic conditions of migrants by advocating for their inclusion in the conventional social security structure of host states. This chapter, however, argues that the optimism around the African Court’s intervention is likely to wane unless it takes bold steps in overcoming the normative and institutional constraints that hinder its effectiveness towards developing a timely jurisprudence on social security.
AB - In 1969, African leaders adopted the region’s first human rights instrument, the Organisation of the African Union Convention Governing the Specific Aspects of Refugee Problems in Africa. Over the next four decades, three key human rights treaties entered into force, expanding on the entitlements of refugees and asylum seekers (RAS). Despite these frameworks, the exclusion of RAS from social security interventions remains pervasive across many host African countries. This setback has driven a disproportionate percentage of this vulnerable population into abject deprivation, hunger and poverty. Against this backdrop, the central research question is: How can the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights (African Court) contribute to alleviating the socio-economic hardship of RAS? To this end, this chapter argues that the African Court could improve the socio-economic conditions of migrants by advocating for their inclusion in the conventional social security structure of host states. This chapter, however, argues that the optimism around the African Court’s intervention is likely to wane unless it takes bold steps in overcoming the normative and institutional constraints that hinder its effectiveness towards developing a timely jurisprudence on social security.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85180525743&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1007/978-3-031-16548-1_5
DO - 10.1007/978-3-031-16548-1_5
M3 - Chapter
AN - SCOPUS:85180525743
T3 - Politics of Citizenship and Migration
SP - 111
EP - 138
BT - Politics of Citizenship and Migration
PB - Palgrave Macmillan
ER -