The Implementation of the Findings of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights by Rachel Murray and Debra Long

Excerpt

Conventional wisdom has it that the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights is less effective than its counterparts in Europe and the Americas. In this important book, Rachel Murray and Debra Long, two legal scholars at the University of Bristol with extensive experience with the African Commission, challenge the conventional wisdom by providing a multifaceted account of how disparate actors implement and follow-up on the findings of the African Commission. The authors thus focus on “soft law” (a term that they use guardedly) and the book largely sidesteps questions of strict compliance with human rights decisions – questions which, the authors note, are extensively discussed in legal and international relations scholarship – in favor of a more nuanced discussion of how different actors (state and non-state, sub-state and international) use, respond to, and follow-up on the findings. …