YEAR IN REVIEW: Upshots of TZ, African Court fallout

Arusha. Apparent silence and uncertainty on the future of the Arusha-based African Court with its host country was the hallmark of the year as 2019 comes to an end.

The 20-year old judicial organ of the African Union (AU) has been operating in Arusha since 2007 after it was formally launched a year before in Addis Ababa.

It is one of the high-profile regional organizations based in the country’s diplomatic city, famous as the seat of the East African Community (EAC) and affiliated bodies.

But the year is coming to an end with a black cloud hanging on the Court after the host country (Tanzania) announced it was withdrawing from one of its key Declarations.

The Declaration allows individuals and non-government organizations direct access to file an application to the African Court on Human and People’s Rights (AfCHPR).

That Tanzania was one of the signatories to the Declaration is not surprising. The host country has no track record of being among African countries notorious for human rights violations.

In fact, Tanzania was among the then Organization of African Unity (OAU) member states which signed the protocol which established AfCHPR during the African leaders’ summit in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso in 1998.

Ideally the Court has to deal with applications pertaining to human rights violations from each country party to the protocol but which have been exhausted at the national jurisdictions.

But the Declaration allowing citizens and NGOs direct access to the Court is seen as most appropriate as it would cut down the long route and speed up dispensation of justice.

Then came the Declaration which is ideally a segment of the broader protocol to establish the Court which has until now been ratified by about 30 AU member countries.

Besides Tanzania, other countries which have signed the now contentious Declaration are Burkina Faso, Benin, Ghana, The Gambia, Cote d”Ivoire, Mali, Malawi, and Tunisia.

It is estimated that 70 to 80 per cent of all the applications filed (some estimates put it close to 200) were from Tanzania; filed by individuals, NGOs and allied aggrieved groups.

One of the applications, filed when the Court was at its infancy, was by the late opposition leader Rev. Christopher Mtikila. It ruled in favour of independent presidential candidate.

Relations between the Court and the government have generally been cordial. Only years ago the former allocated huge tracts of land near Arusha for AfCHPR to construct its permanent headquarters.

Although not publicly said a decision to locate the court in Tanzania was due to the country’s record in human rights issues and successful hosting of the former UN Tribunal to Rwanda which closed shop in 2015.

Then came a bombshell last month (November 2019); Tanzania through the Foreign Affairs and EAC Cooperation announced it was withdrawing from the contentious Declaration.

The notice of withdrawal was sent to the AU Commission in Addis Ababa and according to the minister Palamagamba Kabudi it was made under Article 34 (6) of AfCHPR Protocol for which Tanzania is a signatory.

The decision, the government said was been reached after the Declaration has been implemented “contrary to the reservations it submitted when making this Declaration”.

Ever since the matter became public, nothing has been heard from the African Court’s information channels which used to feed the media houses within Africa with its routine activities.

Sources intimated to The Citizen that decision on the issue would likely emanate from Addis Ababa, the AU headquarters, where the withdrawal notification was directed to.

But a senior official who spoke on condition of anonymity confirmed the move by the host country was a blow to the operations of the judicial organ.

“This would discourage other African countries to sign the Declaration which allows their citizens or NGOs to file cases directly with us,” he said, expressing surprise.

Tanzania is the second country signatory to the Declaration to withdraw from the provision on grounds it contravened with the country’s laws. The first is Rwanda which withdrew in 2016.

But the government through its spokesperson Dr Hassan Abbas and the Constitution and Legal Affairs minister Augustine Mahiga have repeatedly said Tanzania was not quitting the Court.

The East African Law Society (EALS),one of the regional legal bodies based in Arusha, believes otherwise; the bad decision on the part of Tanzania is that is that the Court is hosted by Tanzania.