ABSTRACT
The African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights, the basis of Africa's continental human rights system, entered into force on October 21, 1986, upon ratification by a simple majority of member states of the Organization of African Unity (OAU). The African Charter has attracted criticism because it departs from the narrow formulations of other regional and international human rights instruments. The African Charter, also referred to as the Banjul Charter, was adopted in 1981 by the 18th Assembly of Heads of State and Government of the OAU, the official body of African states. This chapter stresses the African notions of human rights which existed prior to colonization and how those notions differed from the contemporary Eurocentric articulation of human rights. The duty/rights conception of the African Charter could provide a new basis for individual identification with compatriots, the community, and the state.
