Global Campus Europe: EMA

Permanent URI for this collection

https://reponew.gchumanrights.org/handle/20.500.11825/42
European Master in Human Rights and Democratisation Theses written in partial fulfilment of master's degree

Browse

Browsing Global Campus Europe: EMA by Subject "African Union"
  • Item
    Analysis of the Darfur genocide through a critical and political perspective after 20 years of conflict
    ( 2023) Pérez de la Fuente, Marina ; Murphy, Raymond
    This year 2023 is the 20th anniversary since the conflict in Darfur started. After more than 300.000 casualties and almost 2.5 million displaced persons, Darfur has an active genocide that mixed with the recent Civil War leaves a discouraging scenario. Based on the ‘never again, but again Darfur’, this thesis studies why ethnic cleansing seems inevitable after 20 years and how the external powers’ interests have influenced such an extension. The complexity of the ethnic situation and the controversy defining the crimes as genocide has been the rhetoric used for more than 20 years to justify non-intervention. This thesis provides a detailed explanation of the political and economic interests of the so-called “triangle of black interest”: the US, China and Russia. Those who happened to be the majority of the members of the UN Security Council are the ones in control of humanitarian responses. Despite the human rights motives that should dictate the UN Resolutions, the state’s actions in Darfur have been driven by the war on terror narrative, the control of petroleum and the commerce of armament. This political use of the UN human rights protection mechanism has been nourishing the ‘African solutions for African problems’ narrative adopted by the AU which has indirectly positioned the organisation on the perpetrators side. Those actions have triggered the so-called ‘African Revolution’ by the African continent in other UN dependent instruments such as the ICC. This intersectional scenario has led to two decades of conflict without a solution, ongoing violence, and no reparations for the victims. Is Darfur the new Rwanda? How many deadly conflicts are needed to show the international community the inconsistencies of the human rights system? Keywords: Darfur, Sudan, genocide, humanitarian emergency, Al-Bashir, US, UN Security Council, China, Russia, African Union, International Criminal Court, political and economic interests.
  • Item
  • Item
    The impact of state sovereignty on the concept of human rights in Africa
    ( 2008) Fokou Fopa, Bertrand ; Allain, Jean
    Many reasons that have been advanced as preventing the African regional human rights system from being effective. The lacks of political will, cultural relativism, and economic underdevelopment have been in several occasions put forward as obstacles for an effective protection and promotion of human rights in Africa. Meanwhile, Sovereignty as one of the criterion of every state also plays an important role in this reluctance to embody human rights protection and promotion among the priorities of African states. From the creation of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) to the African union (AU), the overwhelming consideration given to the principle of state sovereignty has had a negative impact on the development of human rights as African states turn to consider every human rights scrutiny as an attempt to narrow or undermined their so cherished sovereignty. Respect for the principle of national sovereignty and non-interference in the internal affairs of members States served as a shield for human rights violations. Though the African Union provided for a right to “intervene in case of grave circumstances”, I will argue that the likelihood of such an intervention to take place is very low as African states have always developed a sort of group solidarity, avoiding to criticize each other. Therefore an effective protection and promotion of human rights in Africa will be a reality only when the principle of State Sovereignty could be watered down.