The 6th Ordinary Session of the African Union (AU) Assembly Summit which was held in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, between 23 and 24 January, 2006 concluded its Summit with African Union Human Rights commission challenging African leaders for human rights violations in the continent. According to Reuters, the African Union Human Rights Commission in its report has criticized Ethiopia, Eritrea, Sudan, Zimbabwe, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo for human rights violations. The AU Human Rights Commission report further expressed concern at the continued intimidation of judges and homelessness of people in Zimbabwe, condemned Eritrea for arbitrary arrests and long detentions, called on Ethiopia for the release of political prisoners and urged an inquiry into the clashes over elections that cost the lives of civilians last year. It also urged Sudan to immediately cease all attacks on civilians and to support aid workers trying to feed 2 million refugees in Darfur.

The report has been hailed by the peoples of Africa and human rights organizations all over the world. This is a manifestation of the fact that Africa is ready to take practical action towards improving the deteriorating human rights situation in many part of continent. The human rights situation in Africa is of great concern to the people of the world in general and African in particular. That is why Sudan lost its chairmanship of the African Union because of its bad records of human rights violation. The human rights situation is deteriorating in many countries of Africa. In the countries of worst rights offenders, rape, torture and killings have become a daily occurrence, people are openly slain in cold blood because of their beliefs and choices to elect their new leaders. The choices of people are not respected. Elections results are rigged. States of emergencies are declared to steal the votes of the people in a bid to declare dictators winners. Unarmed peaceful demonstrators are not allowed to express their opposition in the streets, if they do, they are brutally killed, arrested, beaten and sent to detention camps in contravention to international norms that forbid the use of force against peaceful citizens. Opposition forces that wage a non-violent struggle are behind bars awaiting charges of treason and genocide. Press freedom and democratic rights are not respected. Dictators are sowing the seeds of fear among people to tighten their grip to power. Intimidations of judges, lawyers, journalists and opposition forces have become a day to day occurrence.

Why should people in Africa die or live in fear for their leaders to stay in power when it is possible to devise a strategy to bring the dictator to justice. In today’s reality, it is possible to bring dictators to justice and to put an end to atrocities troubling our continent. All that Africa needs is the political will of the people of Africa, its visionary leaders and the international community to jointly act for the respect of human rights. The time has now come for Africa to stop this wide spread violation of human rights. The report of the African Union Human Rights Commission is an important step in the effort to free Africa of human rights violations. Of course, the history of human kind has shown that violations of human rights are the causes of war, civil unrest, liberation movements which result in huge loss of human lives. Africa cannot afford to shed the blood of innocent people any more. Africa has to act in unison in a civilized and responsible manner. The United Nations and the African Union have a big role to play. First and foremost, the leaders of Africa are the signatories of the UN Declaration of Human Rights, if their predecessors signed the documents; the present leaders have endorsed them. Hence, they can be held responsible for not respecting and implementing these declarations in their respective countries.

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