Arusha, 19 October, 2015: The African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights and the African Union have jointly organized a Continental Judicial Dialogue to be held from 4 to 6 November, 2015 in Arusha, Tanzania.
The Dialogue will be attended by about 200 delegates from AU member states, including Chief Justices, Presidents of Supreme Courts and Constitutional Courts, academia, national judiciaries and media, among others.
The theme of the biennial Dialogue is ‘’Connecting National and International Justice’’ and is a follow up to the first edition held in November 2013 in Arusha.
‘’The Continental Judicial Dialogue offers an opportune occasion for productive knowledge-sharing with the goal of establishing and enhancing linkages between the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights, on the one hand, and the Regional and the National Courts, on the other hand,’’ said the President of the African Court, Hon. Justice Augustino Ramadhani, in his pre-Dialogue welcome address.
He added that the three-day Dialogue would also help enhance judicial administration and ensuring quality justice for Africans across the continent.
The participants will discuss, among others, the on-going continental judicial reforms, trends on human rights jurisprudence, continuing judicial education and management of judicial institutions, quality management systems of Courts and sharing of experiences from other continents.
NOTE TO EDITORS:
1. The first Dialogue discussed the African human rights system in general and the relationship between the African Court and the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights in particular. The contentious and advisory jurisdictions of these two institutions were discussed as well as the human rights jurisprudence of the Regional Courts. The Dialogue also discussed the various approaches to domestication of international human rights instruments and their application by national courts as well as the enforcement of the decisions of continental and regional courts by national institutions.
2. One of the conclusions of the first Judicial Dialogue was that a proposal should be tabled to the African Union (AU) policy Organs that the dialogue be institutionalized within the AU and that it be held on a biennial basis. This proposal was made to the AU Policy Organs and by decision EX.CL/Dec. 806(XXIV) Decision on the 2013 Activity Report of the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights, the Executive Council of the African Union accepted the proposal.
