Africa-Press – Tanzania. THE Registrar of the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights, Dr Robert Eno on Wednesday unveiled a resounding success under which the Arusha-based court has so far achieved since its establishment over the past 15 years.
He was presenting a motion at the ongoing Judicial Retreat of Judges of the African Court in Arusha, when he pointed out that as of June 2021, the Court had received 317 applications under contentious proceedings, issued 113 decisions and has 204 cases pending.
The Registrar disclosed that the court has also received 14 requests for advisory opinion and disposed of 13 with only one which is pending.
The visibility of the court, he said, has been greatly increased as a result of its judgments and orders.
According to him, the court has taken a number of initiatives to not only enhance its visibility, but to also promote access to justice and provide adequate remedies to victims of human rights violations.
Some of these measures include, but are not limited to, adoption of new Rules of Procedure.
“These new Rules, which came into effect on September 25, 2020, make it possible for the Court to monitor implementation of its own judgments, including possibility of organizing compliance hearings,” he said during the session organized as part of the Court to celebrate 15 years of its inception.
Dr Eno pointed out that while waiting for the operationalization of the African Union (AU) Legal Aid Fund, the Court is currently operating a small legal aid scheme that provides legal assistance to indigent applicants and ensures advocates before the Court understand the litigation process.
He told participants to the retreat session being conducted virtually that the Court has conducted three trainings for almost 100 Counsel from 23 countries in all five regions of the continent, and in such connection has adopted a Code of Conduct for Counsel on the Roster.
To facilitate case management and make it transparent and accessible, the Registrar pointed out that the Court has installed an electronic case management system.
“When fully operational, this will allow for e-filing and the possibility for litigants to follow the progress of their cases before the Court.
Over 52 percent of the judicial documents have been digitized into the system,” he revealed.
Dr Eno also pointed out that in order to ensure adequate compensation for victims of human rights violations, the Court adopted internal reparation guidelines and a reparations fact sheet for Parties’ reference in 2019.
In 2020, the Registrar further pointed out, the Court also published a Comparative Study on the Practice of Reparations which is publicly accessible for Parties’ use together with the Reparations Fact Sheet.
“The Court has also developed a framework on monitoring of implementation of the Court’s decisions which was submitted to the Specialized Technical Committee on Justice and Legal Affairs in 2020 for consideration,” he said.
Dr Eno was, however, quick to point out some of the challenges the court faced since 2006 when it was established with non-compliance, with decisions of the Court being considered as one of the major challenges, which if not quickly tackled could undermine the very raison d’etre of the Court.
“As of May 2021, only 7 percent of judgments of the Court had been fully complied with, 18 percent partially complied with and 75 percent had not been complied with.
Some States have stated clearly and before the Executive Council that they will not comply with the Court’s decision,” he said.
