The role of human rights lawyers in rights based approach to reduction of poverty in Sub-Saharan Africa

Abstract

Sub-Saharan Africa is a region where extreme poverty is prevalent in spite of the regions apparent commitment to the philosophy of human rights, in that all fifty-three countries in the region ratified the African Charter in addition to several international human rights instruments ratified by countries in the region. This state of affairs is traceable to the lack of or ineffective enforcement mechanism of the human rights obligations of countries in the region. Too much attention had been given to post facto intervention of human rights in form of judicial enforcement of these rights to the neglect of other effective methods of enforcement which can be employed in addition to curial enforcement of the rights for a more effective result. This neglect and the ensuing increase in poverty level prompted this research which was aimed at identifying additional methods of pro-active rights enforcement mechanism and the roles of human rights lawyers in their utilisation to reduce poverty in the region.