From Africa Recovery, Vol.15#4 (December 2001), Briefs page

Rights vital to Africa's progress, says UN commissioner

Africa can much better tackle poverty and advance its development by pursuing a strong "human rights approach," says UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson. Marking International Human Rights Day on 10 December 2001 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia - the first time in 52 years the UN officially commemorated the day in Africa - she said that such an approach would guarantee people's participation, non-discrimination and a broad range of civil, political, cultural, economic and social rights. Such rights are indivisible from the right to development, she said.

The continent's struggles for self determination and racial equality, particularly the campaign against apartheid, helped shape many international human rights instruments, Ms. Robinson noted. "This is a debt the world owes to Africa, but which is not often recognized," she added. Africa's recent initiatives for political and economic recovery, under the African Union and the New Partnership for Africa's Development, offer opportunities

for the international community "to begin to redeem that debt.... We must create true partnerships with African peoples and institutions ... if real change is to take place in the material conditions of the people and enduring democratic foundations are to be strengthened or built."

Extreme poverty, Ms. Robinson observed, is the worst human rights problem in the world today, and Africa is the worst hit. "Let us all, my office, other UN agencies, the OAU [Organization of African Unity], governments and organs of civil society commit ourselves to ... make human and peoples' rights a reality in the lives of African peoples."

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