242 Mizan Law Review SADC EACJ ECOWAS ICCPR OP-CEDAW Vol. 6 No.2, December 2012 Southern African Development Community East African Court of Justice Economic Community of West African States International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women Introduction African states have established Regional Economic Communities (RECs) to achieve increased trade and improved economic links.1 RECs serve as the building blocks for the economic integration of Africa.2 While pursuing these goals, they recognise the enhanced role of human rights, inter alia, as a means to their economic development.3 In the Algiers Declaration, African leaders identified a political environment in which human rights are observed as a precondition to economic growth.4 They also recognised that conflict, one of the obstacles to economic growth, may arise from the violation of human rights.5 For these reasons and others, RECs are involved in human rights matters. Treaties establishing the RECs recognise the promotion and protection of human rights among their principles and different organs have been established to achieve these objectives.6 Some of these organs contribute to human rights 1 Frans Viljoen (2007), International Human Rights Law in Africa (Oxford: Oxford University Press), p.495. 2 Art 88(1), Treaty Establishing the African Economic Community, adopted in 1991 in Abuja, Nigeria and entered into force in 1994. 3 See Magdalena Sepulveda et. al. (2004), Human Rights Reference Handbook (San Jose: University for Peace), p.403; Oliver Christian Ruppel ‘Regional economic communities and human rights in East and southern Africa’ in Anton Bosl & Joseph Diescho (eds) (2009),Human Rights in Africa: Legal Perspectives on their Protection and Promotion (Windhoek: Macmillan Education), p. 279. Respect for human rights immensely contributes to economic development. See also Nneoma Nwogu (2007), ‘Regional integration as an instrument of human rights: Reconceptualizing ECOWAS, Journal of Human Rights 345. 4 Declaration on the Political and Socio-economic Situation in Africa and the Fundamental Changes Taking Place in the World (the Algiers Declaration), OAU Doc AHG/Decl. 1 (XXVI), para 10 - 11. 5 Rachel Murray (2004), Human Rights in Africa: from the OAU to the African Union (Cambridge: Cambridge university Press), p.126. 6 See Consolidated Text of the Treaty of the Southern African Development Community (as Amended), art 4(c); Treaty Establishing the East African Community, art 6(d); Treaty of ECOWAS, art 4(g); COMESA Treaty, art 6(e). These treaties were reproduced in Solomon Ebobrah & Armand Tanoh (eds) (2010), Compendium of