The 2007 African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance : trying to make sense of the late ratification of the African Charter and non-implementation of its compliance mechanism

Date
2019
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Sage
Abstract
In principle, the 2007 African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance (ACDEG) could be a powerful instrument to bring the African Governance Architecture to life and to help ensure that its universal values, including respect for human rights and the rule of law, are implemented across all African Union member states. Yet how serious in reality are the latter on this question? Ratification of the African Charter has taken five years and, as of late 2019, the implementation of its compliance mechanism is still pending. This article asks how these empirical puzzles can be best addressed. In the absence of robust data on member states’ preferences and with a view to developing hypotheses for further research, this article inductively interrogates how data on the various regimes’ political liberties may or may not relate to the ratification of the African Charter and the implementation of the ACDEG compliance mechanism.
Description
CITATION: Engel, U. 2019. The 2007 African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance : trying to make sense of the late ratification of the African Charter and non-implementation of its compliance mechanism. Africa Spectrum, 54(2):127–146, doi:10.1177/0002039719890185.
The original publication is available at https://journals.sagepub.com/home/afr
Keywords
African Union, African Charter on Democracy, Elections -- Africa, Democracy -- Africa, Africa -- Politics and government
Citation
Engel, U. 2019. The 2007 African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance : trying to make sense of the late ratification of the African Charter and non-implementation of its compliance mechanism. Africa Spectrum, 54(2):127–146, doi:10.1177/0002039719890185.