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17 Afr. J. Int'l & Comp. L. 1 (2009)

handle is hein.journals/afjincol17 and id is 1 raw text is: 'LISTEN TO US': ARGUING THE CASE FOR CHILD
PARTICIPATION IN NEPAD
BENYAM D. MEZMUR* AND JULIA SLOTH-NIELSEN**
I. INTRODUCTION
Skeptics might aver that all is doom in Africa. In his book What went wrong with
Africa, Van der Veen writes:
The last fifty years have seen unprecedented changes in people's
standards of life all over the world .... Though poverty was the norm
throughout human history, for many people a degree of prosperity
came within reach.... except in Africa.'
However, two major developments that have led commentators2 to claim that
Africa is poised for positive regeneration in this millennium are the adoption of the
Constitutive Act of the Organization of African Unity (OAU) which established
the African Union (AU), and the launch, on 23 October 2001, in Nigeria, of 'a
development strategy' known as the New Partnership for Africa's Development
(NEPAD). Thus, the 'African renaissance' (as it has been termed) and AU have
become 'beacons of hope' for Africa, and NEPAD is seen by some as a historical
development that meshes well with the African renaissance idea.
Given its recent origin, there is already a relatively vast literature that is written
on the subject matter of NEPAD.3 Supporting this conclusion, in 2004, Msoti
• LLB (Addis Ababa University), LLM (University of Pretoria), PG Diploma on International
Protection of Human Rights (Abo Akademi University), Researcher and PhD Candidate,
Community Law Centre, University of the Western Cape. E-mail: benyamdawit@yahoo.com.
We acknowledge that this work is based on a report commissioned by the African Child Policy
Forum (ACPF), based in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. We thank the ACPF for granting permission
to publish the revised paper. This work is also based upon research supported by the National
Research Foundation.
•* BA LLB (Stel), LLM (Cape Town), LLD (Western Cape), Professor of Law, University of the
Western Cape.
1 R. van der Veen, What went wrong with Africa, (2004), KIT Publishers, p. 13.
2 See, for instance, N. Udombana (a), 'A Harmony or a Cacophony? The Music of Integration
in the African Union Treaty and the New Partnership for Africa's Development', 13 Indiana
International and Comparative Law Review (2002): pp. 185-236 (examining the prospects
of economic and political integration in Africa in the context of the African Union Treaty
and NEPAD and pointing to ways towards making integration a reality in the continent);
N. Udombana (b), 'How should we then live? Globalization and the New Partnership for Africa's
Development' 20 Boston University International Law Journal (2002): 293.
3 See, for instance, V. Nmehielle, 'The African Union and African Renaissance: A New Era for
Human Rights Protection in Africa?' 7 Singapore Journal of International and Comparative
Law (2003): 412; V. Mosoti 'The New Partnership for Africa's Development: Institutional and
17 RADIC (2009)                              DOI: 10.3366/E0954889009000267

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