Africa-Press – Tanzania. THE African Court on Human and People’s Rights has started taking measures to convince the United Republic of Tanzania to restore its declaration, allowing individuals and Non-Government to file directly to the court cases relating to violation of human rights.
President of the Court, Justice Sylvain Ore, told a news conference in Dar es Salaam yesterday that the withdrawal of the largest East African state has an advance impact, considering Tanzania is the host nation of the continental court.
“One of the measures is our presence here. Considering the new leadership we considered it necessary for us to approach her Excellence President of the United Republic to see how the state can consider coming back to the declaration to the court,” Justice Ore said.
He was however quick to clarify that Tanzania was still part of the court despite such withdrawal, as is a state part to the ratification of the protocol.
Justice Ore was optimistic that the country would come back to the court, whose permanent seat is in Arusha, Northern part of Tanzania.
The president pointed out that it was not only Tanzania that had withdrawn the declaration, but there were other African nations such as Benin, Ivory Coast and Rwanda, among others.
“But the good thing is that when we have meetings with Heads of States of the African Union the same states encourage the court to continue the sensitization to reinforce the communication and talk to countries that have not made the declarations so that they can deposit that declaration,” he said.
Therefore, Justice Ore said, there were encouraging signs and that this year there were going to visit many countries with Tanzania being the first to be given such priority considering it is the host country to resolve such issues before going to other countries.
The president was addressing members of the press ahead of celebrations of the court to mark 15 years since its establishment in 2006.
He pointed out that the African Court determined over 85 cases among 250 that have been filed by some parties from different African nations. According to him, out of the cases, more than 80 percent are dominated by Tanzanians.
He attributed such huge contributions to the cases due to a number of factors, notably the proximity of access to the Court as it is in Tanzania as well as having enough awareness of the people in pursuing their rights.
“When you’re a host country, most cases will come from that country because most people are informed and also the access is easier.
Of course this does not mean that there are more violations of human rights in Tanzania, but the people are more informed on the existence of the court,” he said.
The president pointed to another factor as the decision by the host country to have made the declaration to the protocol where several individuals and NGOs could access directly to the court.
He said that they were taking steps to solve such inequality by visiting various African countries to explain the activities and providing sensitizing seminars about the court.
During the celebrations, the continental court is expected to conduct various activities, including holding a Judicial Dialogue for various justices from different African nations, training seminars for journalists and sports completion for students.
The president also explained that the Court was set to rename the Hall used for conduction of cases, which will be called Nelson Mandela, the founding father of South Africa and the Court’s Library to be renamed Julius Nyerere, the founding Father of Tanzania.
The African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights is the judicial arm of the African Union and one of the three regional human rights courts together with the European Court of Human Rights and the Inter-American Court of Human rights.
