The African Legitimacy Paradox

Abstract

Ever since their accession to the international society through the course of the second half of the 20th century, African states have publicly committed to the international human rights regime that forms an integral part of it. Still, they have kept continuing the violation of human rights, causing both scholars from within the study of international relations and political practitioners to question the extent in which the African commitment to human rights is a genuine one. This thesis starts with an examination of the alleged gap between the stance of African states towards the international human rights concept and their public presentation thereof on the basis of the three ‘mechanisms of social control’ familiar among these scholars and practitioners: legitimacy, self-interest and coercion. What will become clear is that with regards to the African social system, these mechanisms are too limited – for by equating the mechanism of legitimacy to an unconditional internalization of, and the mechanisms of self-interest and coercion to a complete lack of interest in the concept of human rights, they do not take into account the room that is left for African states for genuinely wanting to commit to human rights, but not yet being able to unconditionally do so because of external factors tracing back to colonialism and the current system still. Accordingly, this thesis will reveal the broader paradoxical dynamic this structural disregard inflicts, in which the genuine willingness of African states to be part of the international society and the international legitimacy this entails simultaneously confirms the way in which they are fundamentally not.