Africa set to create its own ‘ICC’
By George Murumba
16th July 2012:
The African continent is planning to merge the African Court of Justice and the African Court on Human and People’s Rights with an extension of the Court’s mandate to try criminal cases, the president of the African Court on Human and People’s Rights said in Addis Ababa at a press conference ahead of the two-day 19th African Union (AU) Summit that ended today.
“…We’re going to request the 19th AU Summit to merge the African Court of Justice and the African Court on Human and People’s Rights with an expansion of the jurisdiction mandate to try criminal cases,” said Gerard Niyungeko, President of the African Court on Human and People’s Rights.
According to Niyungeko, the ‘new super court’ would operate like The Hague based International Criminal Court (ICC). Africans accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity would therefore avoid being sent to the ICC, because they would now be tried by the African Court.
The ‘new super court’ would have three sections, one dealing with general matters, the second one dealing with human rights issues, and the third one dealing with criminal matters.
Niyungeko however conceded that so far, only 26 out of 54 African countries have ratified the Protocol on the creation of the ‘new super court’, and only five of the 26 countries have made the Special Declaration allowing individuals and NGOs to file cases at the Court.
The five countries which have fulfilled all the requirements include Burkina Faso, Ghana, Guinea, Malawi and Tanzania. According to Niyungeko, members of the court have been sensitizing African leaders to ratify the Protocol on the creation of the ‘new super court’ and to make the Special Declaration to help the court fully operate.
Since its creation in 2008, the African Court on Human and People’s Rights has only received 22 applications for contentious matters to be adjudicated upon. The court also has a serious shortage of Judges – lack of funding has always been blamed for that. END. Login to www.ugandacorrespondent.com every Monday to read our top stories mid-week for our updates
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