African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights Organizes Sensitization Conferences for National Judiciaries and News Media

This week, the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights (AfCHPR) is hosting two conferences at its seat in Arusha, Tanzania in an effort to increase awareness of the Court’s functions and activities.  From November 18 to 20, the Court will organize a Continental Judicial Dialogue to bring together members from various institutions of the African human rights system, chief justices and presidents of national supreme and constitutional courts, representatives of African Union Member States and relevant African Union Organs, and members of African sub-regional courts. [AfCHPR Press Release]  Following the Judicial Dialogue, the AfCHPR will then host a continental conference for news media from November 21 to 22. [Afriquejet]  The two conferences are the latest in a series of sensitization activities that the AfCHPR has carried out in recent years with the aim of increasing awareness among stakeholders.

Continental Judicial Dialogue

The Court expects to welcome high-ranking officials, including Tanzania’s Prime Minister Mizengo Kayanza Peter Pinda, at the Judicial Dialogue’s opening ceremony on November. [AfCHPR Press Release]  Invited participants include representatives of the AfCHPR, African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, ECOWAS Court of Justice, African Union Commission on International Law, and national courts of African Union Member States.

The Judicial Dialogue will cover seven themes: 1) the interactions between national and international courts, 2) application of international human rights instruments by national courts, 3) enforcement of regional human rights bodies’ decisions at the national level, 4) the advisory jurisdiction of regional human rights bodies, 5) the African Human Rights System, 6) the relationship between the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights and the AfCHPR, and 7) practical cooperation among the participating regional and national institutions. See AfCHPR, Concept Note for the Seminar on Judicial Dialogue with National Judiciaries (2013).

Media Conference

The Media Conference will reportedly engage members of the media in consultative discussions with the Court’s members about how to increase understanding and awareness of the AfCHPR throughout Africa.  [AllAfrica]  By engaging in this kind of outreach, the AfCHPR aims to clarify its mission among journalists so that the media can accurately report information about the availability of judicial redress through the Court and, potentially, increase public interest in their government’s acceptance of the court’s jurisdiction.  [The Patriotic Vanguard]

Increasing State Participation

The AfCHPR has been in operation since the Protocol establishing the AfCHPR came into force on  January 25, 2004 upon ratification by  more than 15 African States. [AfCHPR]  However, the Court has been under-utilized; it has only received 28 petitions regarding contentious matters and 5 requests for advisory opinions to date. [The Patriotic Vanguard]  Out of the 54 Member States of the African Union, only 26 States have ratified the Protocol to date.  Furthermore, only 7 of those 26 States (Tanzania, Burkina Faso, Malawi, Mali, Ghana, Rwanda, and Cote d’Ivoire) have allowed individuals and non-governmental organizations to bring complaints directly before the AfCHPR.

By hosting these conferences for the continent’s judicial bodies and news media outlets, the AfCHPR hopes both to enhance the integration between national legal systems and the African human rights system, and to encourage other States to ratify the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Establishment of an African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights. [Afriquejet]

For further information about African Human Rights Bodies, visit IJRC’s informational webpage on the African System.