Court ruling hits Burundi NGOs

Arusha. Five non-governmental organisations from Burundi will not appear as friends of the East African Court of Justice (EACJ) following this week’s ruling.

The First Instance Division of the regional Court declined to grant the applicants —the NGOs in question — leave sought to appear as ‘amicus curiae’ in a case filed against their government.

Three other regional/international NGOs had challenged the Burundi government’s order on October 19th, 2016 which banned their activities and programmes as well as freezing their accounts and assets. The applicants are the Kenya Human Rights Commission, Foundation for Human Rights Initiative and the International Federation for Human Rights.

In its ruling, the Court said the application fell short on proof of the applicants expertise, neutrality or fidelity to the law and would, therefore, not succeed had it considered its merits.

In addition Court said that it found no justification to satisfy the Court that the Application is justified as required under Rule 36(4) of the Court’s Rules to grant the Applicants leave to join matter. The Court also said that no reference whatsoever was made to or proof furnished of the neutrality of the five NGOs which filed the case.

Most certainly, the Applicants’ expertise (had it been proven) would not in itself have amounted to sufficient proof of neutrality by the Applicants. “Thus, in the absence of the sole Affidavit in support thereof, it follows that the Application before us remains unsupported by any affidavit and, to that extent, contravenes the mandatory provisions of Rule 21(5).”the Court ruled.