A new beginning? The enforcement of social, economic and cultural rights under the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights

In this article l focus on one such group - social and economic rights - but in a way that rejects the traditional distinction between the various kinds of rights and embraces an understanding of the rights in the Charter as being truly interdependent and indivisible. I argue that the Charter is unique amongst regional human rights instruments in that it makes no distinction between various kinds of rights, and that the scope and content of these rights should therefore be interpreted in a way that makes sense for all the rights contained in the document. Although I therefore focus on social and economic rights, l do so with reference to all rights contained in the Charter.