African Court on human rights underutilised
Arusha.
The African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights, which started operations in Arusha six years ago, is grossly underutilised because it is still not much known across the continent, a meeting of stakeholders has observed.
Only 26 states out of the 54 African Union (AU) members have ratified the protocol establishing it while only five of those which have ratified the Protocol have so far authorised individuals and non-governmental organisations to institute cases directly before it.
"First, the Court is yet to be well known to African populations and the various entities entitled to bring cases before it. The second factor is that a few states have ratified the Protocol establishing it," they said during a sensitisation seminar in Addis Ababa. The seminar held at the AU headquarters last week aimed at raising awareness about the Court in all its dimensions to a wide spectrum of partners in the human rights system from eastern to North African states.
It was also aimed to encourage more ratifications of the Protocol and more deposits of the declaration allowing individuals and NGOs direct access to the Court as well as strengthen the partnership with those partners in promoting the Court. It emerged during the three-day meeting in the Ethiopian capital that the Court has received only 24 petitions relating to contentious matters and three requests for advisory requests, making it largely underutilised. (Zephania Ubwani).
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