Abstract
The year 2022 marked the 35th anniversary of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights. As it is a custom in many communities, when one reaches this milestone, it is an opportune time to introspect and reflect on the successes and challenges encountered in one’s journey. It is this template that the paper adopts to measure the prospects and setbacks of the African Commission in the advancement of the right to health. The Article argues that while the body remains the poster child of the continent’s human rights architecture, its inability to clearly articulate how states ought to advance the right to health has downplayed its role in this agora. It is, thus, not ironic that whereas health right is guaranteed by the overarching regional human rights instrument, a disproportionate percentage of the continent’s population continues to bear the brunt of treatable diseases with insufficient state response. Consequently, the translation of the right to health from paper to practice remains a pipedream to many at the grassroots level. To that end, the Article observes that the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights offers useful lessons that could give impetus to the African Commission in its aspiration towards advancing health right across the continent.
Recommended Citation
Bright Nkrumah,
The low-hanging fruit: Health, Rights, and the Commission,
30 Wash. & Lee J. Civ. Rts. & Soc. Just. 33
(2023).
Available at: https://scholarlycommons.law.wlu.edu/crsj/vol30/iss1/5
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