Cultural Rights (for economic, social and cultural rights) and the International Covenant
on Civil and Political Rights (for civil and political rights), thus creating 2 sets of rights.
This did not influence the Organisation of African Unity at the time, which combined both
civil and political rights and ESCR in the same document, which did not consequently have
resource consideration for the implementation of rights. In 2001, the African Commission
made it clear in the SERAC versus Nigeria case that there is an interdependence of rights,
the obligation to protect, respect and fulfil rights irrespective of the type of rights. This
was reiterated in the case of Purohit versus the Gambia.
These are the ways in which NHRIs has followed up on the implementation of the
decisions of the African Commission
Kenya
Endorses case: This was the ffirst case of the African
Commission to recognise the rights of indigenous people in
Kenya – The Endorois filed this case as a consequence of
their eviction from their land in Kenya and were challenging
the violations of several rights in the African charter.
Unfortunately, not much has happened but the NHRI has
participated by convening other stakeholders and working
on an advisory to the State on what if implemented would
lead to a realisation of the rights in the African Charter. The
government formed a task force and unfortunately it was
not properly funded and they never had the opportunity to
present the final report.
Ogiek case: The Ogiek case task force received inputs from
different stakeholders and filed its final reports to the
authorities about a year ago. Unfortunately, the report is not
yet public.
Nigeria
SERAC versus Nigeria is a landmark decision that has great
effect on the jurisprudence on environmental protection.
The NHRI has taken several steps to implement the
decisions such as using the decision of the African
Commission to resolve/deal with complaints, creating
awareness at the local level on the implementation of ESCR
citing decisions of the African Charter.
In 2016 the NHRI created a human rights and investigation
panel in Nigeria on oil pollution and oil degradation
following the decisions of the African Commission. However,
in the court of appeal, the decision of the court of first
instance were reversed in that oil issues are not rights
issues. They have appealed this decision to the Supreme
Court and one of the authorities in this case is that of SERAC
versus Nigeria.
The NHRI has also created a link to the decisions of the
African Commission so that these decisions can be made
accessible locally. It has further adopted a national action
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