ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the enforcement of extraterritorial human rights obligations in the African Union by its human rights monitoring bodies, to assess whether a uniquely African perspective on extraterritorial obligations can be identified. It explores whether the jurisprudence of the African Commission and African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights and other monitoring bodies has given express or implicit recognition to extraterritorial obligations and identifies the nature and scope of these obligations. The relative paucity of relevant cases makes premature any definitive conclusion regarding the existence of a uniquely African perspective on extraterritoriality. African human rights bodies still often envision extraterritoriality as an exception to territoriality and remain aligned with the European personal and spatial models. However, the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights also provides promising avenues for more expansive interpretations of extraterritorial obligations reflecting the meta-narrative of African particularities, through its lack of a jurisdictional limit and its emphasis on African solidarity and group rights.
