The African Protocol on the Rights of Citizens to Social Protection and Social Security: Prospects for Comprehensive Social Protection Systems

This article examines the potential contribution of the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Citizens to Social Protection and Social Security to the establishment of comprehensive social protection systems. The Protocol is the first hard-law instrument on the continent specifically enacted to encourage the codification of social protection in domestic law. The Protocol is relatively new (2022) and addresses most contemporary issues in social protection in the Global South. However, there is scant research on the determinants of its potential success or failure in promoting a shift from sporadic projects to comprehensive systems for delivering social protection in Africa. Using a socio-legal approach, the article suggests that the progressive realisation of comprehensive social protection systems as recommended by the Protocol will depend upon the dominant ideologies of member states towards state-led social protection, the financial autonomy of the member states, the political support of the Protocol by the relevant national actors, the legal assessment of the Protocol by regional and national courts and – not least – upon the capacities of civil society for legal mobilisation.