Social Science Research Council

THE EAST AFRICA HUMAN RIGHTS INSTITUTE: FOSTERING REGIONAL CO-OPERATION IN THE FIELD OF HUMAN RIGHTS, DEMOCRACY AND CONFLICT MANAGEMENT IN EASTERN AFRICA
By Atunga Atuti

The East African Human Rights Institute is an organization intended to promote people to people and institutional cooperation in the field of human rights and democracy in line with prevailing developments of closer cooperation and unity between East African countries as manifested, among other avenues and forms of cooperation, in the East African Community and the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development. The Institute hopes to promote respect for human rights within the East African Community by influencing instruments and departments of the Community to enhance democratic governance, international human rights standards and conflict resolution mechanisms as part of the shared values and common interests in the co-operation arrangements. It is anticipated that the Institute working with its partners will constructively engage the community and other regional arrangements in a number of activities and issues within an overall framework of poverty reduction because poverty in all its forms and manifestations acts both as a denial and an impediment to the enjoyment of rights and welfare. This brief article intends to outline briefly a framework for prioritizing amongst regional programs and projects geared towards promoting cooperation in the field of democratic governance and conflict management in Eastern Africa.

The Institute intends to concentrate its efforts in five key areas. These include:

1. The East African Human Rights and Governance Institute (EAHRI) This is a bi-annual colloquium bringing together key actors from the government, NGO sector, academia and the donor community to share information, to review trends, and to develop new perspectives in the field of human rights and democratic governance. This will be an attempt to galvanize consensus and to promote regional co-operation and solidarity among the key human rights and democratic governance actors in Eastern Africa. The Governance Institute will be convened in Eastern Africa on a rotational basis in March and September every year.

2. The East Africa Journal of Human Rights and Democracy This quarterly publication will be devoted to key trends, developments and contemporary issues in the field of human rights, governance, and poverty reduction. The journal will endeavor to provide both operational and scholarly leadership in these areas. It will be published quarterly with the final quarter issue being a joint publication of the East Africa Law Society and The Independent Review.(1)

3. The East Africa Human Rights and Democracy Report The final quarter of the journal will be devoted to a presentation of the report on the status of human rights and democracy in Eastern Africa. This will present comparative analysis, research findings, people’s perceptions and anecdotal evidence on progress or lack thereof (in any particular year) on the key indicators of democratic development and promotion of human rights. This will borrow from a set of indicators developed by the Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance [IDEA] based in Sweden.

4. Information-Technology for Human Rights and Democracy The collaboration among the African Regional Center for Computing (ARCC), the East African Law Society, and the Institute is resulting in a program on information technology and its impact on the promotion of human rights, democracy, and conflict management in Eastern Africa and the Horn of Africa. This will provide information and facilitate regional exchanges on political, economic, and social-cultural trends capable of enhancing people to people cooperation using advances in technology on matters concerning the region and its publics.

5. The Rwanda Tribunal and its impact on Regional Governance The EAHRI, The Independent Review, the East Africa Law Society and the Law Society of Kenya (as a follow up to the Law Society of Kenya/East Africa Law Society visit to the International Criminal Tribunal on Rwanda in Arusha in mid-September 2002) have developed a program analyzing how the proceedings of the tribunal, international law on crimes of genocide, and the judgments of the tribunal can influence public debate, and what their impact is on regional governance and on the jurisprudence on matters relating to conflict, genocide, torture and crimes of genocide.

We are developing these programs with the understanding that regional cooperation has the ability to add value to issues that would otherwise be addressed on a national level. We are aware that some of the challenges to development in Eastern Africa must, per definition, be addressed in a regional framework. Most opportunities and problems are, however, national or local. One of the challenges, and a starting point for this framework, has been to identify which problems – and opportunities – need to be addressed with a regional approach, and where a regional approach adds value.

Our desire to engage the East Africa Community is borne out of the realization that democratization in Eastern Africa has been a slow and difficult process with a high degree of vulnerability to armed conflicts.

Governments are responsible for upholding the respect for human rights. Likewise, democracy, as a system of ensuring the will of the people through a political process, will need to have different attributes in different countries. However, other countries will heavily influence the process of democratization in a given country in particular and in neighboring countries in general. The democratic institutions and the norms fostering democratic development are still being shaped. Conflict management mechanisms are hence weak. Therefore, on the basis of shared values and common interests underpinning regional cooperation efforts, civil society actors have a window of opportunity to interact with the organs and departments of the Community and among themselves on the issues we have set out to undertake.

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Notes:

1. Independent Review is a journal devoted to contemporary development issues in Eastern Africa.

Atunga Atuti graduated with a B.A. from Kenyatta University and proceeded to acquire both a diploma and a M.A. in International Relations at the University of Nairobi. He has consulted for SIDA and is currently the executive director of the East Africa Human Rights Institute.