Resolution on the New Partnership for African Development (NEPAD)
We the participants at the Forum on the Participation of NGOs in the 32nd Ordinary Session of the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights and the 6th Human Rights Book Fair held at the Kairaba Beach Hotel in Banjul, from October 14th-16th, 2002,
Considering the principle of indivisibility and interdependence of all human rights recognised by the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights 1981, the Declaration on the Right to Development 1986, the Vienna Declaration and Plan of Action on Human Rights1993 ;
Considering the importance of the respect for economic, social and cultural rights for the effective enjoyment of human rights;
Recalling the responsibility of States to guarantee their people, without discrimination, access to basic public services such as water, education, health and housing;
Recalling that all development policies should strictly abide by the Universal Declaration on Human Rights and subsequent instruments;
Conscious of the need for the justiciability of economic, social and cultural rights in order to enable all individuals to claim these rights before an independent authority;
Welcoming the will of African States to take African development in hand, particularly in the framework of the New Partnership for African Development (NEPAD) based on the «Declaration on Democracy and Good Governance »;
Welcoming the establishment of a peer review mechanism in order to ensure the monitoring of the NEPAD member States’ respect of the « Founding Declaration on Democracy and Good Governance »
We call upon the African Commission to:
Fully participate and play its role in the NEPAD process;
Ensure that the human and peoples’ rights dimension is mainstreamed into all NEPAD programmes.
Urge member States of the African Union that have not yet done so to ratify without reservation the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights;
Urge member States of the African Union to support the elaboration of an optional protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in order to ensure the justiciability of these rights ;
Urge NEPAD partner States of the need to place the respect of human rights at the centre of economic development policies for Africa;
Urge NEPAD partner States to respect the gender dimension in all NEPAD programmes
Urge NEPAD partner States to prioritize the allocation of investment funds in order to give priority to the access to basic public services such as education, health, water, in accordance with their regional and international obligations;
Ensure that the peer review mechanism is composed of independent persons and provides for an annual report taking into account the impact of NEPAD policies on human rights, particularly economic, social and cultural rights.
Ensure information access and dissemination and the participation of the African civil society in all NEPAD programmes;
Done in Banjul, The Gambia 16th October, 2002
