Professor Frans Viljoen (FV) wears many hats, including being the Director of the Centre for Human Rights at the University of Pretoria. For this conversation, we caught up with him to hear specifically about one of his new roles as the representative of the Group of African States of the United Nations (UN) Human Rights Council (HRC) Advisory Committee. Tukkievaria’s Masego Panyane (MP) had a quick chat with him.

MP: What is the role of the UN HRC's Advisory Committee?

FV: The Advisory Committee was established by the HRCin 2007, replacing the former Sub-Commission on Human Rights on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights, which was operative from 1947 to 2006. As a subsidiary expert body, the Committee works at the direction of and within the scope of the HRC’s mandate. It can be described as the 'think-tank' of the HRC. The Committee is composed of 18 experts elected by the HRC, who serve in their personal capacity.

MP: As the representative from the Group of African States, what are the issues that you will be focusing on particularly?

FV:  The Advisory Committee consists of 18 members. Of these members, five are elected from among African UN member states. The remaining membership comprises five from Asia, three from Latin America, two from Eastern Europe and three from Western European and other States. Currently, the African members are from Algeria, Egypt, Mauritius, Morocco and South Africa. This composition underscores the need for sub-Saharan African perspectives, in particular. 

At its last meeting, the HRC requested the Advisory Committee to prepare a study in which it examines patterns, policies and processes contributing to incidents of racial discrimination and makes proposals to advance racial justice and equality. Racial injustice is evidently one of the most pertinent issues of our time, and for Africa. South Africa has been pivotal by hosting the 2001 World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance and in spearheading the drafting of the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action. Twenty years later, much of the Programme has not been realised.  

I have put my name forward to act as rapporteur of the Advisory Committee's drafting group for the study on "patterns, policies and processes contributing to incidents of racial discrimination", which the HRC "commissioned" at its last session in its Decision From rhetoric to reality: a global call for concrete action against racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance (See A/HRC/RES/48/18, para 14). Issues that need attention in the domain include how racism may be perpetuated in seemingly neutrally-framed terms, as the case of Caster Semenya illustrates.

MP: What is the focus of the UN HRC at the moment? What 'burning issues' is the committee focusing on?

FV:  As indicated before, one of these issues is racial discrimination and the quest for racial justice.  Issue related to this theme include reinvigorating the International Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Racial Discrimination; making more of the International Decade for People of African Descent (2015-2024); and building awareness and understanding on the mandate and role of the Permanent Forum of People of African Descent.

The other is the issue of new technologies and their effect on human rights. At its most recent meeting in October 2021, the HRC adopted a landmark resolution on climate change (Resolution 48/14).  In it, the HRC requests the Committee to conduct a study and to prepare a report on the impact of new technologies for climate protection on the enjoyment of human rights. This is to be done in close cooperation with the new Special Rapporteur on climate change. It is important that this issue be looked at through the lens of a continent where the impact of new technologies has been more restricted but also holds tremendous promise.

Some of the issues which the Advisory Committee has recently concluded studies and provided advice on include the current and mostly inadequate levels of representation of women in human rights organs and mechanisms; the negative effects of terrorism on the enjoyment of human rights; and appropriate means of assessing racial equality.

Some of the issues that may be included in the HRC’s short-term work are the mainstreaming of the human rights of women and girls in conflict and post-conflict situations.

MP: How does your particular research focus on African human rights fit in with the UN’s global focus?

FV:  My research focus has fallen on the norms and institutions making up the human rights architecture of the African Union (AU).  There is a need for these norms and standards, which are often not well known beyond Africa, to become central pillars of ongoing human rights debates and discussions in international forums, including the Advisory Committee. I am of the view that my background and expertise equip me well to influence and steer this process along. 

There is much of relevance in the African human rights system, which represents norms that capture an African-specific approach to human rights. These norms are contained in, for example, human rights treaties such as the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights and the Maputo Protocol therefore, on the rights of women in Africa.  The fact that the African Charter contains unique features such as a justiciable right to development, individual duties and collectively enforceable rights, should be understood and be part of the basis on which global human rights evolves in the future.  There are also 'soft-law' standards, developed by the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights and African Committee on the Rights and Welfare of the Child. Examples include the African Commission's 2021 Resolution 473 on the need to undertake a study on human and peoples’ rights and artificial intelligence, robotics and other new and emerging technologies in Africa; and the Children's Rights Committee's General Comment on the situation of children of imprisoned mothers.

 MP: What are you hoping to achieve in your tenure as a member of the Committee?

FV:  I hope to have Africa's voice - and specifically that of sub-Saharan Africa - heard louder in this forum, and to be a factor of greater significance in the development of international human rights law.  In the process, a balance has to be struck between African specificities and globally-agreed standards.  It would be my aim to ensure that Africa's distinct issues are foregrounded. At the same time, Africa's contribution should to the extent possible be viewed as enriching and complementary, rather than contradictory, to well-established global standards.  

I would also like to see research of particular relevance to Africa be prioritised in the work of the Advisory Committee.

The work of the Advisory Committee is also an opportunity for questioning the epistemic practices underlying international human rights law, to critique the current practices of reliance on sources for authority, and to introduce and ensure greater inclusion of African scholarship and thinking in the Committee's work.