Abstract
The African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights guarantees the Right to Development (RTD) but also imposes a duty on the African States to individually or collectively ensure the enjoyment of the RTD. Thus, a State or its agents may impede the realization of RTD in another State through its actions or failure to take actions. The enjoyment of the RTD will be significantly impeded if it lacks extra-territorial reach. This paper examines the extra-territorial reach of the RTD under the African Charter by probing the meaning of ‘collectively’ as provided in Article 22(2) in light of similar provisions under the UN Charter and the International Covenant on Economic Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR).
Keywords: Right to Development, Extra-territorial Human Rights obligations, African Commission, African Charter, international cooperation.