Tanzania has ‘70pc’ of cases at AU court
What you need to know:
The Arusha-based African Court of Human and People’s Rights has received 120 cases since it started operations a decade ago
Arusha. Tanzania has emerged the biggest beneficiary of the African Union’s human rights court in Arusha with the host nation accounting for at least 70 per cent of applications that have been received up to date, it has been revealed.
The Arusha-based African Court of Human and People’s Rights (AfCHPR) has received 120 cases since it started operations a decade ago, according to deputy registrar Nouhou Diallo.
“Over 120 cases have been received up to now. Most of them are from Tanzania,” he told a delegation of parliamentarians from Germany who visited the Court on Thursday.
Mr Diallo said the court appreciated the cooperation it was getting from Tanzania and Germany.
Tanzania ratified the protocol that established the Court on February 10, 2006 and signed a declaration that allowed individuals and NGOs to access it directly on March 10th the same year.
The Court, a judicial organ of the African Union, was established in 1998 and operationalised in 2006 to determine cases pertaining to violation of human and people’s rights in Africa.
Mr Diallo said 32 of the applications received have been disposed of, 32 others finalised and a few others pending or transferred to the Banjul-based African Commission on People’s and Human Rights.
“One of our challenges is that the judges are not residents in Arusha not like in the European Court. They come for the cases only,” he said.
Only 30 out of the 55 AU states have ratified the protocol which established it.
“At the Court we are doing what we can do,” he said, noting that AfCHPR appreciated the firm support it was getting from Germany as well as Tanzania.
The leader of the seven-person parliamentarians from Germany Saxony State Heinz Lehmann emphasised that his country was keen to see a politically stable Africa.
The delegation from the ruling Christian Democratic Union (CDU) stressed the maintenance of human rights cannot be taken for granted in both Africa and Europe.
“There is a huge amount of interest from our side to learn more about Tanzania as a supporter of the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights,” he said.
The team is currently visiting the country, including the GIZ projects and the East African Community. It has also met officials of the Tanganyika Law Society (TLS) and the Judiciary.
On Wednesday, the deputy registrar told a visiting delegation from Kenya that that cases are filed at the Court by aggrieved parties from all over the continent after exhausting all local remedies.
