The African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR) adopted Resolution 634 during its 83rd Ordinary Session—May 2-22, 2025. The resolution constitutes a significant development, as it links Africa’s structural economic challenges—including resource exploitation, debt, and inequitable financial relations—to the rights of peoples to development and to freely dispose of their wealth and natural resources under the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights.

The resolution grounds its reasoning in Articles 21, 22 and 24, which guarantee peoples’ rights to freely dispose of their wealth and natural resources, to economic, social, and cultural development, and to a satisfactory environment. It also underscores Article 21(5), which obliges state parties to eliminate all forms of foreign exploitation and to ensure equitable international economic relations for the well-being of African peoples. The Commission expresses deep concern about the asymmetric position of African economies in the global financial system.

The Commission calls on the African states to revise existing laws and regulations on natural resources, taxation, and investment to comply with Articles 21 and 24 of the Charter and to establish enforceable transparency standards for licensing, debt agreements, and fiscal regulation to combat corruption and illicit financial flows.

The resolution further supports the development of a legally-binding United Nations tax convention. The Commission also calls on the African Union and the member states to establish an independent continental investor-state dispute settlement or arbitration tribunal, with the aim of achieving fairness and internationally acceptable standards of independence.