| Summary: | Despite decades of foreign aid, abundance of natural and human resources,
and numerous development initiatives, the African continent remains largely
underdeveloped, marginalised and excluded from major decision-making
processes that shape today’s world. The purpose of this research is to
examine the reasons for the continuous underdevelopment and
marginalisation of the African continent and to advance pragmatic measures
to be put in place to reverse the situation.
The thesis demonstrates that Africa’s underdevelopment and marginalisation
cannot be divorced from the effects of centuries of exploitation, domination,
and exclusion through the slave trade, colonialism, and neo-colonialism on
the one hand, and decades of poor socio-economic and political governance
that have characterised the continent since independence, on the other. One
of the main findings of the research is that, over the years, African leaders
have consciously or unconsciously failed to recognise the fundamental link
between human rights, human development, and peace as a foundation for
development, and this failure has resulted in their inability to craft sustainable
development initiatives for the continent.
Given the prominent place human rights, good governance, democracy,
peace and stability occupy in both the Constitutive Act of the African Union
(CA-AU)1 and the New Partnership for Africa’s Development2 (referred
throughout this thesis as the NEPAD Document), the thesis further
demonstrates that there is an intrinsic relationship between human rights,
human development, and peace which is necessary for development. It
analyses the extent to which this relationship has been taken into account in
1 The Constitutive Act of the African Union, OAU Doc. CAB/LEG/23.15, was adopted
11 July 2000 in Lomé, Togo and entered into force May 26, 2001.
2 The New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD or the NEPAD Document)
2001. The NEPAD is an economic development program of the African Union. The
NEPAD was adopted at the 37th Session of the Assembly of Heads of State and
Government in July 2001 in Lusaka, Zambia.
PhD Thesis Human Rights, Human Development and Peace – inseparable ingredients in Africa’s quest for prosperity
xvi
the conception, formulation, and implementation of the objectives of both the
AU and the NEPAD; and concludes that the NEPAD and the AU initiatives
provide a strong foundation and offer an excellent opportunity for Africans to
begin to reverse centuries of exploitation, domination, and decades of socioeconomic
and political exclusion, as well as re-orientate the governance and
development strategy of the continent.
The thesis is premised on the realisation that respect for human rights, the
promotion of human development, and the consolidation of peace, coupled
with good political and economic governance are conditions sine qua non for
any meaningful development. It further reveals that respect for human rights
provides a foundation upon which rests the political structures of human
freedoms. The achievement of human freedom generates the will as well as
the capacity for economic and social progress. The attainment of economic
and social progress provides the basis for durable peace.
The thesis concludes that human rights, human development, and peace are
interdependent, interrelated, indivisible and mutually reinforcing, and thus
inseparable ingredients in Africa’s quest for prosperity.
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