50. Giving Africa Voice within Global Governance: Oral History, Human Rights and the United Nations Human Rights Council

This paper presents three key arguments that need to be taken into account during the process of remaking of the world order and recreation of a new global governance architecture. It raises the issue of the African continent and the African people being perceived as a problem to be solved rather than a voice to be heard within global politics. It makes a case for the use of oral history as an ideal medium to bring the voices of “second-class players” to the notice of the Human Rights Council and as a key methodology in the current endeavor to understand different situations of human rights violations. Finally, it grapples with the important question of whose values and whose voice should underpin the universal human rights discourse and global governance.