Former Chief Justice elected new African Human Rights Court head

The African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights (AfCHPR) has elected its new leadership body placing Tanzania’s Chief Justice Augustino Ramadhani as the new president of Africa’s continental court.

 

The new governing bureau was approved at the beginning of its 34th Ordinary Session here on Monday where Lady Justice Elsie N. Thompson was honoured the new court’s Vice President.

 

Chief Justice, Augustino Ramadhani

The current bureau replaces Hon. Lady Justice Sophia A. B. Akuffo and Hon. Justice Bernard M. Ngoepe, former President and Vice President, respectively, whose terms as Judges of the Court ended this week on September 8.

 

The former Chief Justice won seven votes of the court’s 11 serving judges.

Other judges who are to join the new bureau include Solomy  Balungi Bossa from Uganda, Rafaa Ben Achour from Tunisia and Angelo Vasco Matusse from Mozambique.

Each of the court’s judges, who hail from 11 different African countries are to serve a six year term and can only be re-elected once.

 

The court’s president and vice-president, meanwhile, are each elected to two-year terms. They, too, can only stand for re-election once.

AfCHPR is a continental court established by African countries to ensure protection of human and peoples’ rights in Africa. 

It complements and reinforces the functions of the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights.

 

It was established by the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Establishment of an African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights (the Court Protocol) which entered into force in 2004.

 

The Arusha-based Court has jurisdiction over all cases and disputes submitted to it concerning the interpretation and application of the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights, the Charter, the Protocol and any other relevant human rights instruments ratified by the States concerned.

SOURCE: THE GUARDIAN