It is important to note that the rights guaranteed under the African Charter are
categorized. While one part strictly protects individual rights, the other part protects
collective rights.
The combined purport and intendment of articles 19 to 24 as can be inferred from
the above is the protection of peoples’ collective rights as against individual rights.
In other words these articles refer to collective rights belonging to a people as against
personal right. In Kemi Penheiro SAN V. Republic of Ghana, ECW/CCJ/JUD/11/12
(2012) (unreported), where the Applicant alleged the violation of Articles 20 and 22
of the African Charter, the Court stressed that it is opinio juris communis that the
rights referred to in Articles 19-24 of the African Charter are rights of (all) “peoples”
in contrast to the rights of “every individual”, “every human being”, or “every
citizen” proclaimed in Article 2-17.
Self-determination on its own denotes the legal right of a people to decide their own
destiny in the international order. Under the United Nations Charter and the
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, self-determination is protected
as a right of “all peoples.” It refers to the rights of people indigenous to an area to
determine their destiny. Indigenous peoples’ rights are collective rights. In other
words, they are vested in indigenous persons that organize themselves as peoples.
With the adoption of the UN Declaration on the right of indigenous people, the
international community clearly affirms that indigenous peoples require recognition
of their collective rights as peoples to enable them to enjoy human rights.
25