Poverty, agency and resistance in the future of international law: an African perspective

Abstract

This article enquires into the likely posture of future international law with respect to African peoples. It does so by focusing on three of the most important issues that have defined, and are likely to continue to define, international law's engagement with Africans. These are: the grinding poverty in which most Africans live, the question of agency in their historical search for dignity, and the extent to which these African peoples can effectively resist externally imposed frameworks and measures that have negative effects on their social, economic and political experience. International law's future posture in these respects is considered through an examination of concrete debates relating to agricultural subsidies, debt usury and relief therefrom, and the relocation of framework socioeconomic governance of almost every African state to external institutions. Insights about what the future holds for the effectiveness of Third World resistance are derived from a consideration of the broad lessons that can be learned from the successes or failures of some past Third World struggles.

Notes

I am grateful to Pius Okoronkwo for his research assistance. Elements of this article are taken from my presentation to the 2005 Annual Meeting of the Canadian Council on International Law entitled, ‘Viewing international legal fragmentation from a Third World plane: a twail perspective’, and my forthcoming paper entitled ‘The precarious place of labour rights and activism in Nigeria's dual economic and political transition (1999 – 2005)’. The thoughts articulated in this article have been markedly influenced by conversations (actual and virtual) with many of my colleagues in the twail movement, and by the writings and other efforts of Professors Upendra Baxi and Richard Falk. I am most grateful to all of these rare brains for their inspiration and support all these years. Nevertheless, I am solely responsible for any errors or omissions in the article.

1 For a very useful conception of the ‘Third World’ as constituted by a diverse but nevertheless mostly harmonious ‘chorus of voices’, see K Mickelson, ‘Rhetoric and rage: “Third World” voices in international legal discourse’, Wisconsin International Law Journal, 16, 1998, pp 353 – 419. I am in complete agreement with this understanding of the expression.

2 For detailed explanations of the nature of twail scholarship, see M Mutua, ‘What is twail?’, American Society of International Law Proceedings, Washington, DC: American Society of International Law, 2000, p 31; J Gathii, ‘Alternative and critical: the contribution of research and scholarship on developing countries to international legal theory’, Harvard International Law Journal, 41, 2000, p 263; Mickelson, ‘Rhetoric and rage’, p 353; and OC Okafor, ‘Newness, imperialism, and international legal reform in our time: a twail perspective’, Osgoode Hall Law Journal, 43, 2003, p 171.

3 World Bank, Equity and Development, World Bank Development Report 2006, Washington, DC: World Bank, 2005, p 66.

4 Ibid, pp 4 – 9.

5 U Baxi, ‘Voices of suffering and the future of human rights’, Transnational Law and Contemporary Problems, 8, 1998, pp 131 – 132.

6 A Giddens, The Constitution of Society: An Outline of the Theory of Structuration, Cambridge: Polity Press, 1984, p 9.

7 Ibid.

8 H Seckinelgin, ‘A global disease and its governance: hiv/aids in sub-Saharan Africa and the agency of ngos’, Global Governance, 11, 2005, pp 351 – 353.

9 R Falk, ‘The global promise of social movements: explorations at the edge of time’, Alternatives, 12, 1987, p 173; and B Rajagopal, ‘International law and social movements: challenges of theorizing resistance’, Columbia Journal of Transnational Law, 41, 2003, p 397.

10 Baxi, ‘Voices of suffering and the future of human rights’, pp 155 – 156.

11 M Ndulo, ‘The democratization process and structural adjustment in Africa’, Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies, 10, 2003, pp 315 – 317.

12 EU Strategy for Africa: Towards a Euro-African Pact to Accelerate Africa's Development, Communication from the Commission to the Council, the European Parliament and the European Economic and Social Committee, SEC (2005) 1255, Brussels, 12 October 2005, COM (2005) 489 final, pp 5, 31.

13 See Nigeria: National Economic Empowerment and Development Strategy (needs), 2004, at http://www.nigeria.gov.ng/eGovernment/Needs.PDF, p 21; and S Amadi & F Ogwo (eds), Contextualizing needs: Economic/Political Reform in Nigeria, Lagos: hurilaws and cppr, 2004, at http://www.boellnigeria.org/documents/Contextualizing%20NEEDS.pdf, p 26, accessed 18 February 2005.

14 Equity and Development, p 9.

15 EU Strategy for Africa, p 15.

16 Ibid, p 19.

17 See NJ Udombana, ‘How should we then live? Globalization and the New Partnership for Africa's Development’, Boston University International Law Journal, 2002, pp 293 – 313.

18 On the contribution of Third World (including African) resistance to the making of international law, see generally Rajagopal, ‘International law and social movements’.

19 See IL Head, ‘The contribution of international law to development’, Canadian Yearbook of International Law, 1987, 25, pp 29 – 30.

20 See JJ Steinle, ‘The problem child of world trade: reform school for agriculture’, Minnesota Journal of Global Trade, 4, 1995, pp 333 – 334. See also R Bhala, ‘Challenges of poverty and Islam facing American trade law’, Saint John Journal of Legal Commentary, 2003, 18, pp 471 – 473.

21 See the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, at http://www.wto.org/english/docs_e/legal_e/06-gatt_e.htm, accessed 29 November 2005.

22 Our Common Interest: Report of the Commission for Africa (‘the Blair Commission Report’), Commission for Africa, 2004, pp 236 – 237.

23 Ibid, p 236.

24 See also O Obasanjo, ‘Keynote address to the Governing Council of the International Fund for Agricultural Development’, 19 – 20 February 2002, p 3, at http://www.ifad.org/events/gc/25/speech/obasanjo.htm, accessed 26 September 2005.

25 Ibid, p 4.

26 See Our Common Interest, p 279, section 8.3.1.

27 For the text of the wto's Doha Development Agenda, see http://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/dda_e/dda_e.htm, accessed 26 October 2005. See also G8 Finance Ministers' Conclusions on Development, London, 10 – 11 June 2005, pp 4 – 5, at http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/otherhmtsites/g7/news/conclusions_on_development_110605.cfm, accessed 26 October 2005; and the Conclusions of the Gleneagles Meeting of the G8 Heads of States, 6 – 8 July 2005, at http://www.g8.gov.uk/servlet/Front?pagename=OpenMarket/Xcelerate/ShowPage&c=Page&cid=1119518698846, accessed 26 October 2005.

28 Giddens, The Constitution of Society.

29 A Anghie, Imperialism, Sovereignty and the Making of International Law, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004, pp 13 – 113, 273 – 309.

30 Ibid, pp 32 – 113.

31 Ibid. See also J Gathii, ‘Neoliberalism, colonialism and international governance: decentering the international law of governmental legitimacy’, Michigan Law Review, 98, 2000, pp 1996 – 2024.

32 See O Obasanjo, ‘Address at the Sixth Edition of the Conference of Montreal’, Montreal, 14 May 2000, p 2, at http://nigeriaworld.com/feature/fromasorock/speech/montreal_address_05152000.html, accessed 26 September 2005, emphasis added.

33 See M Chege, ‘Remembering Africa’, Foreign Affairs, 71, 1991 – 92, p 146.

34 See GBN Ayittey, ‘How the multilateral institutions compounded Africa's economic crisis’, Law and Policy in International Business, 30, 1999, pp 585 – 600.

35 See J Oloka-Onyango & D Udagama, ‘The realization of economic, social and cultural rights: globalization and its impact on the full enjoyment of human rights’, UN Doc. E/CN.4/Sub.2/2000/13, 15 June 2000, paragraph 22.

36 EU Strategy for Africa, p 19.

37 BS Chimni, ‘International institutions today: an imperial global state in the making’, European Journal of International Law, 15, 2004, p 1.

38 Ibid, pp 1 – 2.

39 See OC Okafor, ‘Re-conceiving “Third World” legitimate governance struggles in our time: emergent imperatives for rights activism’, Buffalo Human Rights Law Review, 6, 2000, p 1.

40 Ibid, p 5.

41 Ibid, pp 6 – 9.

42 Ibid.

43 Ibid.

44 JT Gathii, ‘A critical appraisal of the nepad agenda in the light of Africa's place in the world trade regime in an era of market centered development’, Transnational Law and Contemporary Problems, 13, 2003, pp 179 – 188. For a more favourable reading of the nepad document, see V Mosoti, ‘The New Partnership for Africa's Development: institutional and legal challenges of investment promotion’, San Diego International Law Journal, 5, 2004, pp 145 – 147.

45 For example, see the nepad document, at http://www.uneca.org/nepad/nepad.pdf, pp 34 – 36, accessed 29 November 2005.

46 Gathii, ‘A critical appraisal of the nepad agenda’, pp 188 – 191.

47 Ibid, p 12.

48 Ibid, p 19.

49 See imf, Nigeria: 2005 Article IV Consultation, imf Country Report No 05/302, 25 March 2005, paras 1, 6, 13, 58.

50 Ibid, para 58.

51 Ibid, para 6.

52 See J Ngugi, ‘Making new wine for old wineskins: can the reform of international law emancipate the Third World in the age of globalization’, UC Davis Journal of International Law and Policy, 8, 2002, pp 73 – 80.

53 Ibid, p 76.

54 Ibid, p 79.

55 See M Mutua, ‘Why redraw the map of Africa: a moral and legal inquiry’, Michigan Journal of International Law, 16, 1995, p 1113.

56 See BS Chimni, ‘Third World approaches to international law: a manifesto’, in A Anghie et al (eds), The Third World and International Order: Law, Politics and Globalization, Leiden: Martinus Nijhoff, 2003, p 48.

57 Mickelson, ‘Rhetoric and rage’. See also TM Franck, ‘Lessons of the failure of the nieo’, Canadian Council of International Law Proceedings, Canadian Council on International Law, Ottawa: Canada, 1986, p 82; and OC Okafor, ‘The status and effect of the right to development in contemporary international law: towards a South – North entente’, African Journal of International and Comparative Law, 7, 1995, p 865.

58 S Tharoor, ‘The messy afterlife of colonialism’, Global Governance, 8, 2002, p 1.

59 See the Doha Declaration on the trips Agreement and Public Health, 14 November 2001, at http://www.wto.org/english/thewto_e/minist_e/min01_e/mindecl_trips_e.htm http://www.wto.org/english/thewto_e/minist_e/min01_e/mindecl_trips_e.htm, accessed 29 November 2005.

60 JT Gathii, ‘The legal status of the Doha Declaration on trips and Public Health under the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties’, Harvard Journal of Law and Technology, 15, 2002, p 291.

61 See Rajagopal, ‘International law and social movements’, pp 399 – 400. See also ‘Zoellick faces heat from Congress on scope of trips and health deal’, at http://www.cptech.org/ip/wto/p6/insideustrade12062002.html, accessed 29 November 2006; and ‘wto declaration on trips and health—the fight is not over’, at http://www.globaltreatmentaccess.org/content/press_releases/01/111301_HGAP_Doha_decl.html, accessed 29 November 2006.

62 Rajagopal, ‘International law and social movements’.

63 Ibid, p 399.

64 Ibid, pp 399 – 400.

65 Ibid.

66 I had pointed towards the necessity for movement in the direction of transnationally focused Third World struggles for global equity in an earlier article in the Buffalo Human Rights Law Review. See Okafor, ‘Re-conceiving “Third World” legitimate governance struggles in our time’.

67 Rajagopal, ‘International law and social movements’, p 400.

68 Ngugi, ‘Making new wine for old wineskins’, pp 74 – 75.

69 Baxi, ‘Voices of suffering and the future of human rights’, pp 155 – 156.

70 Ibid.