In an assessment report released on the eve of African Heads of State and Government summit in Khartoum, Sudan, the Coalition of African Jurists, National Human Rights Institutions, and NGOs yesterday declared that the process of electing judges for the proposed African Court on Human and Peoplesí Rights is ìsubstantially flawed.
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The Khartoum Summit, which begins on Monday, 23 January, is scheduled to elect 11 judges of the African Human Rights Court.
The report concludes that selection of candidatesunder consideration for election as judges of the African Court was not transparent and ìfailed to comply with the AU guideline.
South African lawyer, Nobuntu Mbelle, Regional Coordinator of the Coalition for an African Court on Human and Peoplesí Rights and a principal author of the report said: 16 countries have nominated 21 candidates, of whom only five are women, and barely one-third have experience in human rights. We can do better.
Amadou Ali Kane, Head of Advocacy for the Coalition in Francophone Africa added: With the atrocities in Darfur, Khartoum was always a dodgy venue for this Summit. This report confirms that it is not the appropriate place to elect judges of the African Court.Nigerian human rights lawyer, Maxwell Kadiri, one of the principal authors of the assessment report, commented:The African Human Rights Court is one of the most important institutions ever to be established in this continent. The real issue is whether the pool of candidates we have is good enough for the important work the Court will do. On the current evidence, we donít think so.
The African Human Rights Court was established by a Protocol (Treaty) adopted by African leaders in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, in June 1998.
The Protocol entered into force on 25 January 2004. In July 2004 the African Union decided to merge the Court with the Court of Justice of the African Union and, pending the merger, to postpone the establishment of the Court. In July 2005, the African Union decided to go ahead with establishment of the Court. The Court will be made up of 11 judges. 21 countries (Algeria, Burkina Faso, Burundi, CÙte díIvoire, the Comoros, Gabon, the Gambia, Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Libya, Mali, Mauritius, Mozambique, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, South Africa, Togo, and Uganda) have so far ratified the African Court Protocol.
Article 11 of the Protocol requires that judges of the African human rights court should be ìelected in an individual capacity from among jurists of high moral character and of recognized practical, judicial, or academic competence and experience in the field of human and peoplesí rightsî and ìno two judges shall be nationals of the same Stateî. Based on the Protocol, the AU in April 2004 adopted Guidelines and Principles to ensure the election of qualified and impartial judges. These Guidelines are Mandatory. The AU Guidelines on the Nomination of Judges of the African Court require that candidates for judgeship of the African Court: (i) shall be jurists of high moral character and of recognised practical, judicial, or academic competence and experience in the field of human and peoplesí rights; (ii) should reflect the diversity of the principal legal systems, of the regions, and gender balance between the men and women of Africa; and (iii) shall not hold office or be involved in activities incompatible with the independence and impartiality of a judge and should, therefore, not be a member of government, minister, under-secretary of state, diplomatic representative, director in a ministry, or government legal advisor.
(iv) in addition, the procedure for nomination shall be open and transparent and, at the minimum, comparable to that for appointments to the highest judicial office in the nominating countries, andshould encourage participation by professional and civil society groups.
16 countries nominated 21 candidates. Of this number, six have common law experience (Kenya, Lesotho, South Africa, Nigeria, Uganda, Ghana); nine have civil law experience (Algeria, Burkina Faso, Burundi, CÙte díIvoire, Mali, Senegal, Rwanda, Comoros, Niger), and two have Islamic law experience (Comoros, Libya). Five are women. The regional break down of the candidates is as follows: North- 4 male candidates; East ñ 3 male and 2 female candidates; Central- 1 female; 1 male
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