CONTINUED FROM LAST TUESDAYYET, as a competent judicial body, the court has the capacity to address the many human rights instruments promulgated in Africa without identified judicial mechanisms. It will offer individual victims of human rights violations a regional forum for the adjudication of their claims, and the right to an effective remedy.If fully endorsed and supported by African governments, the African Human Rights Court is capable of transforming the culture of impunity into that of respect for human rights, and restoring confidence in the regional human rights system.On the domestic level, the court can, through its advisory and contentious jurisdictions, contribute to the establishment of democracy, the rule of law, transparency and respect for human rights, which in turn will bring prosperity and development to the world's most impoverished region.But the Court's contribution to protection of human rights across Africa will continue to be limited unless all the 44 member-states of the AU embrace and ratify the protocol establishing the court and simultaneously accept the competence of the court by making the required declaration. Otherwise, the court will remain a paper tiger and this will be very unfair to numerous victims of human rights violations across Africa who continue to be denied access to justice.As Justice Sophia A. B. Akuffo, vice president of the African Human Rights Court, has rightly said: 'Universal ratification will give the Court the legitimacy it needs to effectively discharge its mandate. It will also demonstrate the commitment of states' parties to the protection of human rights and bring renewed hope to the people of Africa that, perhaps, the protection of human rights is no longer a half-hearted business as usual. Anything short of 100 per cent ratification will limit the jurisdiction of the African Court and the legitimacy of the protection system, as some citizens of member-states would not benefit from the 'insurance cover' the Court is established to provide where the remedies available from the Commission are inadequate'.Another interesting development of note regarding the African Human Rights Court is that following a proposal by former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, the AU decided in 2005 to merge the Court of Justice established under its Constitutive Act with the African Human Rights Court, the two courts becoming the African Court of Justice and Human Rights. This court, with two chambers - one for general legal matters and the other for human rights - will replace the African Human Rights Court once the merger protocol adopted in July 2008 enters into force. However, the protocol establishing the court is still being ratified and currently has received only 3 ratifications: Burkina Faso, Libya and Mali.If the African Charter is to remain relevant for another 30 years, then African leaders must take their obligations and commitments to establish an effective and accessible African Human Rights Court very seriously. Civil society, which has for 30 years promoted the human rights norms articulated in the Charter, and raised the concerns of unheard voices, has a greater role to play in the efforts to ensure that the court is fully accepted and endorsed by governments for the sake of African victims of human rights violations.Only then can the Charter become a reality for millions of disempowered and disadvantaged Africans, and its overall role in the regional and national enforcement of human rights the last 30 years consolidated; and greater level of success recorded in the next 30.' Olaniyan is the legal adviser at the International Secretariat of Amnesty International, London.This piece is an abridged keynote address delivered by Dr. Olaniyan version of at the NGOs Forum preceding the 50th Ordinary Session of the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights and 24th African Human Rights Book Fair October 19 -21 2011, Banjul, The Gambia.
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