Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has listed poverty, socio-economic rights, environmental and sustainable development as issues that must be dealt with for Africa to achieve the desired level of attainment.
Other issues that need attention, Osinbajo said, were concerns about democracy and unconstitutional changes of governments across the continent.
Osinbajo spoke at the opening of the 2022 Judicial Year of the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights in Arusha, Tanzania, where he was Special Guest of Honour.
The vice president’s spokesman, Laolu Akande, disclosed this in a statement he signed on Monday titled ‘How to guarantee the Africa we want, by Osinbajo at African Court’s first-ever formal yearly opening in Arusha.’
“The Africa we want is one that addresses, amongst others, humanity’s most pressing concerns of eradication of poverty, hunger and disease; the sustenance of democracy and the rule of law; sustainable development, especially dealing with challenges of climate change and application of finite resources for economic growth and diversification; human security and peace,” Osinbajo said.
He also commended the African Court of Human and People’s Rights for the Afrocentric development of human rights jurisprudence, noting that already the African Court was playing its own role.
For instance, he mentioned that the court has required states to uphold rights and principles of fairness, transparency, and inclusiveness in elections.
Osinbajo, who addressed the justices of the African Court, other sisters regional human rights institutions, groups of lawyers and experts, and international human rights bodies, among other stakeholders, identified the challenges and burdens “we must discharge to arrive at the type of continent we want”.
He then called on African nations to, while pursuing the implementation of Agenda 2063, resolve to improve the human rights records of the continent in the immediate future, as “the purpose of life is in the here and now, not in the far future.”
He was optimistic that “Africa will overcome its current governance and human rights challenges,” but decried “the lack of a proper enforcement mechanism, either at the domestic or continental level, notwithstanding the Ouagadougou Protocol’s mandate on the AU Executive Council,” describing it as one of the challenges Africa must work hard to resolve.
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