Human Rights and Development in Africa

Edited by Claude E. Welch Jr. & Ronald I. Meltzer

Paperback : 9780873958370, 360 pages, June 1984
Hardcover : 9780873958363, 360 pages, June 1985

Table of contents

Preface

I: ROOTS AND IMPLICATIONS OF HUMAN RIGHTS IN AFRICA

Introduction to Part I

1. Human Rights as a Problem in Contemporary Africa
Claude E. Welch Jr.

2. Traditional Conceptions of Human Rights in Africa
Lakshman Marasinghe

3. Women's Rights in English-speaking Sub-Saharan Africa
Rhoda Howard

4. A Modern Approach to Human Rights in Islam: Foundations and Implications for Africa
Abdullahi Ahmed El Naiem

5. Human Rights in Southern Africa: The Mote in Thy Brother's Eye
Richard Weisfelder

II: REGIONAL INITIATIVES ON HUMAN RIGHTS IN AFRICA

Introduction to Part II

6. The Banjul Charter on Human and People's Rights: Genesis and Political Background
Edward Kannyo

7. The Banjul Charter on Human and People's Rights: A Legal Analysis
Richard Gittleman

8. Human Rights Non-Governmental Organizations in Black Africa: Their Problems and Prospects in the Wake of the Banjul Charter
Harry M. Scoble

III: PROBLEMS OF DEVELOPMENT AND HUMAN RIGHTS FROM AN INTERNATIONAL PERSPECTIVE

Introduction to Part III

9. International Human Rights and Development: Evolving Conceptions and Their Application to Relations between the European Community and the African-Caribbean-Pacific States
Ronald I. Meltzer

10. The Political Economy of Self-Determination: A World Systems Approach to Human Rights in Africa
Timothy M. Shaw

11. Global Power and Self-Determination: The Case of Namibia
George W. Shepherd Jr.

12. The "Right to Development": How Not to Link Human Rights and Development
Jack Donnelly

IV: RESEARCH SOURCES

13. Research Problems and Library Resources on Human Rights in Africa
Corinne Nyquist

14. Bibliography
Claude E. Welch Jr. and Vicki M. Kraft

Appendix One. The African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights

Appendix Two. Concordance of Basic Human Rights Guaranteed in the Banjul Charter and Other Major Human Rights Treaties
Robert C. Wigton

Appendix Three. Major African Conferences on Human Rights, 1961-81

About the Authors
Index

Description

Human Rights and Development in Africa focuses on the variety of typical and significant human rights issues that trouble the African continent. The first book to explore these issues in an interdisciplinary manner, its fourteen chapters provide domestic, regional, and international perspectives for assessing the situation. Among the topics given detailed attention are: practices in Southern Africa, women's rights, Islamic thought, the legal and historical background to the African Charter, the role of nongovernmental organizations in protecting African human rights, and the treatment of human rights and development issues in various North-South contexts. In addition, the editors provide a guide to library resources, a lengthy bibliography, the text and substantive assessment of the African Charter, and an integrative overview of major problems in defining and protecting rights in Africa.

Contributors to the volume are internationally-known specialists on African politics, human rights, and international political economy.

Claude E. Welch, Jr. is Professor of Political Science and Chair of the Department at the State University of New York at Buffalo. Among his publications are Anatomy of Rebellion and Civilian Control of the Military: Theory and Cases from Developing Countries, both published by SUNY Press. Ronald I. Meltzer is Associate Professor of Political Science at the State University of New York at Buffalo. He is also the author of U. S. International Economic Policy in Action: Diversity of Decision Making.