Draft for consultation
September 2022
PREAMBLE
The African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights (the African Commission) meeting at its [#] Ordinary Session, held from [date] to [date] in [place]:
Recalling Resolution ACHPR/Res.447 (LXVI) 2020 on upholding human and peoples' rights during situations of emergency and in other exceptional circumstances, which tasked the Focal Point on Human Rights in Conflict Situations in Africa to develop a normative framework in the form of Guidelines on adhering to human and peoples' rights standards under the African Charter when declaring states of emergency and disaster;
Further recalling Resolution ACHPR/Res.449 (LXVI) 2020 on human and peoples' rights as a central pillar of a successful response to COVID-19 and recovery from its socio-political impacts;
Concerned that there is no guidance on derogation from social, economic and cultural rights in international human and peoples' rights law in relation to cases of emergency and disaster;
Bearing in mind the recommendations in the ACHPR/Res.332(EXT.OS/XIX) 2016 on Human Rights in Conflict Situations, and the Study entitled 'Addressing Human Rights Issues in Conflict Situations: Towards a more systematic and effective role for the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights' adopted during its 64th Ordinary Session, which among others assigns the Focal Point on Human Rights in Conflict Situations in Africa the responsibility for monitoring the state of emergency laws and practices in Africa, and to review the Commission's position on derogation from Charter rights under states of emergency;
Recognising the obligations, and guiding law and principles, contained in the legal instruments, general comments, guidelines, principles, declarations, resolutions and other normative documents of the African Commission on the protection and promotion of human and people' rights, and the need to consider their application in situations of emergency or disaster;
Considering the seriousness of the human rights issues arising from formal declarations of states of emergency or of disaster and the implementation of de facto emergency powers across the continent, as witnessed in the context of the health emergency relating to the novel corona virus (COVID-19);
Considering Article 60(2) of the African Charter, which mandates the African Commission to draw inspiration from international law, and the relevance in this respect of applicable international human rights and international humanitarian law norms and Article 4 of the United Nations Human Rights Committee General Comment No. 29 on Derogations during a State of Emergency, which affirms that States' measures of derogation from treaty obligations should be in accordance with humanitarian law;
Recognising that the rights enshrined in the African Charter are indivisible, interdependent and interrelated and apply in all times, and reiterating the need for emergency and disaster measures to recognise human and peoples' rights as mutually reinforcing;