“I would like to take this opportunity to once again thank EU for the support of the training of counsels for the African Court and other partnership ventures,” Justice Sylvian Ore, President of the African Court stated at the end of a three-day training of African Counsels at Arusah, Tanzania.

The Counsels were trained in Regional Normative Framework, Basic Texts and Litigation before the African Court, Role of The Parties in Litigation Process, and the Jurisprudence of African Court.

Other areas included the Implementation of The African Court’s Decisions after Judgement, The Legal Aid Scheme of the African Court and of the African Union Organ with Human Rights Mandate and A Practitioners Perspective.

 Justice Ore encouraged Lawyers to appear before the African Court, fully equipped to present Applicants either under the Court’s Legal Aid Scheme or in their private individual capacities. The African Court President tasked the newly trained Counsels to “spread the word and encourage more colleagues to apply for enrolment on the Court’s Roster, particularly Counsel from North, South and Western African who are currently under represented and particularly also female Counsel”.

Justice Ore explained that the overall objective of the training is to enhance the African Human Rights System as a whole by promoting knowledge of the judicial procedures of the Court among relevant stakeholders.

He said the specific objective is to educate and train Counsel who have been accepted by the Court to represent Applicants under the Legal Aid Scheme of the Court by familiarizing them with the judicial, procedural and operational aspects of the Court and also to update them on the Courts Legal Aid Scheme.

The African Court President also commended the media for the dissemination of proactive information about the jurisprudence of the Court and its work.