January 22, 2004
The African Union is this year set to create a human rights court and two other key institutions, but analysts question whether they will mark a real departure from its lame-duck predecessor, the Organisation of African Unity (OAU). On Sunday, a protocol establishing the African Court on Human and People's Rights comes into force, paving the way for the continent's first ever judicial institution solely dedicated to protecting basic human rights. By the end of the year, the AU should also have set up a Peace and Security Council (PSC), similar to the UN Security Council, and a Pan-African Parliament.
In theory, the peace and security council will give the AU more clout than the OAU had, since it will have the power to intervene, militarily if necessary, in the internal affairs of member states. According to an AU statement, it "will provide a more proactive, comprehensive and robust framework for building and consolidating African security architecture that will strengthen the continent's institutions, programmes and initiatives for preventive diplomacy, peace-building and peace-making, thus enhancing the state of security and stability in Africa."
War, unrest
About 10 African states currently face civil war or internal unrest. UN peacekeepers are deployed in Liberia, Democratic Republic of Congo and on the border between Ethiopia and Eritrea, where relations remain tense two years after the Horn of Africa neighbours signed a peace deal. The African Union already has a small force in Burundi, where civil war has raged for more than a decade, but these troops are not peacekeepers per se, only mandated to protect returning exiles and oversee the reintegration of rebels into civilian life or into the regular armed forces.
"The PSC is going to fulfil a very important role in theory, but in practice I don't know how much effect its going to have," Adala Ochieng, an analyst at the Africa Peace Forum, a Nairobi-based organisation focussing on conflict prevention, told AFP by phone. "When it comes to action, that is a big question mark," he cautioned, noting that the PSC's effectiveness depended not only on the goodwill of member states but also their logistical and military ability to react rapidly where necessary.
Despite its illustrious name and ambitious mandate, the AU human rights court has not had a very promising gestation period. It took five years for the necessary 15 of the Union's 53 members states to ratify its protocol. And the court will only have jurisdiction over these states.
Scepticism
Individuals wishing to bring a case will only be able to do so with the okay of the state that is party to the case or through the AU's Commission for Human and People's Rights, a body few African victims of rights abuses will be familiar with. Before it can start functioning, judges must be elected, a process meant to take place at a heads of state meeting in Addis Ababa in June.
While welcoming the development in principle, Amnesty International (AI) was sceptical about the practicalities. "The establishment of an independent African court will make a vital contribution to efforts to strengthen Africa's regional human rights system and could stimulate positive change throughout Africa," the organisation's legal advisor for Africa, Kolawole Olaniyan, told AFP by phone from his London office.
Credibility
But "if individuals don't have access, it kind of undermines the integrity, the credibility of court", he pointed, adding that AI would lobby for more countries to ratify the court's protocol. Also in the pipeline is a pan-African parliament, which is expected to take up the role of making decisions for major issues in the continent. "It's a welcome move, at least from nothing, but it is unlikely that the parliament would be authoritative as it is suppose to be," noted Gilbert Osiemo, a political science lecturer at the University of Nairobi. "Nevertheless, the continent has finally realised the importance of setting up its own institutions of governance," Osiemo added.
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