Grassroots study of African Charter on Democracy

(Bunge la Mwananchi)-- The African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance is a document that was produced by the African Union.The AU Assembly of the heads of State and government adopted it on 30 January 2007 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

The Charter is a kind of regional treaty or set of rules to promote the values and principles of democracy and human rights in Africa. It is an African initiative.However, it has not entered into force until it is ratified by 15 African states. When a state ratifies the Charter, it formally agrees to be bound by it. When this happens, it becomes a ‘State Party’ to the Charter. As a State Party, it is legally obliged to respect and implement all the provisions of the Charter.

The ratification of the Charter happens in stages. First, individual states must sign the Charter. Signing the Charter indicates that a state accepts the principles of the Charter and intends to ratify it. Each state that signs the Charter must then ratify it, in accordance with its own constitutional procedures. The requirements for ratification vary from one country to another. In most countries, the ratification needs to be formalised by an act of parliament. This means that parliament needs to discuss the Charter, approve it, and formally adopt it by passing a special act. In some cases, after a country has ratified the Charter, it must also domesticate it, by amending its laws and policies wherever necessary to ensure that they conform to the Charter.

By the beginning of 2009, the Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance had been signed by 24 member states of the African Union, as follows: Benin, Burkina Faso, Kenya, Central African Republic, Congo-Brazzaville, Djibouti, DRC, Ethiopia, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Mauritius, Namibia, Nigeria, Niger, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Sudan, Swaziland and Togo.

Out of the 53 member states of the African Union, 29 had not yet signed the Charter by January 2009, after it had already been in existence for two years. The signatories of the Charter have been slow to ratify it. So far, it has only been ratified by Mauritania, Ethiopia, Sierra Leone and South Africa. This means that another 11 states still have to ratify the Charter before it becomes a legally binding document. Signing the Charter allows a state to give the impression that it supports the principles of democracy and good governance, but it can be interpreted as a symbolic act, not necessarily signalling any real commitment.

Delaying the process of ratification suggests that many of the signatories have reservations about taking the next step. More pressure needs to be applied on the signatories, and all the other member states, to ratify the Charter as soon as possible, so that the threshold of 15 states will be reached and the Charter will then become properly binding. Only then will it become an effective legal instrument in Africa. [Adapted in whole from Study Guide on the Charter by Marie-Louise Strom of IDASA]

Adopting a bottom up approach African citizenry are beginning to take it upon themselves to understand the values and principles espoused in the Charter and use this as an instrument and platform to lobby their governments to ratify the Charter. In this regard, grassroots in Kenya organised a meeting in Nairobi (on 14 March 2010) that brought together 41 grassroots leaders drawn from their countrywide networks of Bunge la Mwananchi to discuss the Charter. The grassroots meeting was the first of three initial meetings targeted to familiarising grassroots leaders with the Charter. The grassroots leaders will then facilitate similar meetings in their community platforms countrywide to familiarise the Kenyan citizenry with the Charter. These community meetings will help to build citizenry pressure to demand that the government of Kenya ratifies and domesticates the Charter.

The initiative has the following broad objectives:

- to introduce to and familiarise grassroots leadership with this regional treaty that promotes the values and principles of democracy and human rights in Africa. (The grassroots leadership that will participate in the study shall use the acquired knowledge to initiate similar meetings around this instrument back in their community platforms)

- from the awareness built and benefits realised from the study of the Charter, strategise on how the citizenry can lobby our government (especially the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Parliament and President) to ratify and domesticate this Charter

- to strategise on how the values and principles in this treaty can inform the modus operandi in the run up to, during and after the 2012 general elections.

The next grassroots leaders’ meeting is scheduled to take place in Nairobi on 28 March 2010 starting 1pm (Nairobi time).

* Bunge la Mwananchi is an initiative of Kenyan people to engage in democratic expressions on governance, accountability and social justice.

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