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Vol. 38 (2018)
General Articles

Endogenous and Exogenous Limits of the African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance

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  • Marek Jan Wasiński
Marek Jan Wasiński
University of Łódź

Published 2018-12-31

Keywords

  • The African Charter on Democracy,
  • Elections and Governance,
  • rule of law,
  • interpretation of treaties

Copyright (c) 2021 ILS PAS

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

How to Cite

Endogenous and Exogenous Limits of the African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance. (2018). Polish Yearbook of International Law, 38, 29-57. https://doi.org/10.24425/pyil.2019.129605

Abstract

This article analyses the capacity of the African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance to counteract the democratic governance shortfall. It argues that the tangible impact of the treaty on the states’ practice has been limited by various endogenous and exogenous factors. The former are identified as directly linked to content of the document and refer to the accuracy of the drafting. The latter are rooted outside the text and beyond the character of the Charter and include issues relating to the states’ reluctance to ratify the document, certain constitutional constraints undermining implementation on the national level, and the weak international guarantees of enforcement.

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