The African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights (AfCHPR) has paid tribute to African Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) for playing critical roles towards its establishment.
“May I take this opportunity of the 10th anniversary of Human Rights Promotion by the African Court to pay deserving tribute to CSOs and Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) which have been at the forefront of the Court’s vibrant jurisdiction on issues as significant as the right to political participation, freedom of expression, and fair trial.
“I would also like in particular to acknowledge the unflagging support by the highest authorities of the United Republic of Tanzania,” Justice Sylvain Oré, President of the African Court, stated at Arusha, the United Republic of Tanzania.
Justice Ore, who was speaking at the on-going international symposium on a decade of human rights protection by the African Court, noted that “ten years in the life of an institution is much but it is rather little”.
“It is much when we look at the challenges facing the African continent, especially in matters of justice and the rule of law. In reality, it is only in five years that he Court delivered some 10 decisions on the merits and attained the level of visibility that it has today.
“This result is worthy of praise but it is very little in relation to the great hopes which the establishment of this Court raised for African litigants,” he said. Justice Ore also commended the member-states of the African Union for establishing a Court to ensure the protection of human and peoples’ rights in Africa. The Court was established by virtue of Article 1 of the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Establishment of an African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights (the Protocol).
The African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, which is the main African human rights instrument that sets out the rights and duties relating to human and peoples’ rights in Africa, provides a framework within which the AfCHPR was created. The Protocol establishing the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights was adopted on June 9, 1998, in Burkina Faso and came into force on January 25, 2004, after it was ratified by more than 15 countries. The Court has its permanent seat in Arusha, the United Republic of Tanzania.
Presenting the historical genesis of the African Court, Justice Ben Kioko, Vice-President of the Court, said it officially started its operations in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, in November 2006, but in August 2007 it moved to its seat in Arusha. He said the government of Tanzania had provided it with temporary premises pending the construction of a permanent structure.
He recounted that between 2006 and 2008, the African Court dealt principally with operational and administrative issues, including the development of the structure of the Court's Registry, preparation of its budget and drafting of its Interim Rules of Procedure. In 2008, during the African Court's 9th Ordinary Session, judges of the Court provisionally adopted the Interim Rules of the Court pending consultation with the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights (ACHPR) based in Banjul, the Gambia.
Justice Kioko said the Protocol establishing the African Court required that the two institutions must harmonize their respective rules to achieve the intended complementarity between the AfCHPR and the ACHPR. “This harmonization process was completed in April 2010 and, in June 2010, the Court adopted its final Rules of Court,” he said.
According to the Protocol (Article 5) and the Rules (Rule 33), the Court may receive complaints and/or applications submitted to it either by the ACHPR or state parties to the Protocol or African Intergovernmental Organizations. Non-Governmental Organizations with observer status before the ACHPR and individuals from States which have made a Declaration accepting the jurisdiction of the African Court can also institute cases directly before the Court.
As of March 2014, only seven countries had made such a Declaration. They are Burkina Faso, Ghana, Malawi, Mali, Rwanda, Tanzania and Republic of Cote d'Ivoire. Justice Kioko said the African Court delivered its first judgment in 2009 following an application dated August 11, 2008, by Mr Michelot Yogogombaye against the Republic of Senegal. About 150 delegates, including the academia, Civil Society Organizations, Organs of the African Union, judiciary representatives of regional and sub-regional human rights institutions, and media practitioners are attending the two-day commemoration.
Other dignitaries attending the symposium includes Mr Harrison Mwakyembe, Minister of Justice and Constitutional Affairs of Tanzania; Dr. Khabele Matlosa, Director, Political Affairs Department, African Union Commission; and representative of the East African Community Court of Justice.
The rest are representative of ECOWAS Court of Justice, European Court of Human Rights, the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights; and African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child.
The rest are representative of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, and the GIZ (German Development Cooperation).