Coalition for an Effective African Court on Human and People’s Rights

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Human Rights Institute of South Africa
15th Floor Sable Centre, 41 De Korte Street
P.O. Box 31267
Braamfontein, Johannesburg
Gauteng, South Africa

Tel: + 27 11 403 0850
Fax: + 27 11 403 0855

Contact: Ms. Nobuntu Mbelle, Coordinator
Email: info@hurisa.org.za
Website: http://africancourtcoalition.org

or

Corlett Letlojane
Email : corlett@hurisa.org.za
Website: http://www.hurisa.org.za

Description

The Coalition for an Effective African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights, a network of non-governmental organizations and independent national human rights institutions, was formed during the first conference for the promotion of the protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights establishing the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights in Niamey, Niger in May 2003. The Coalition became functional in 2004. Its vision is for an effective and independent African Court to provide redress to victims of human rights violations and strengthen the human rights protection system in Africa and at domestic level.

The Coalition’s objectives are to:

• Ensure full ratification of the protocol establishing the African Court by all 53 member states of the African Union (AU);
• Enhance transparency in the nomination and election of judges;
• Provide a platform for sustainable civil society participation in the creation of the African Court;
• Provide technical support to the AU and the African Court;
• Develop capacity for litigation;
• Publicize developments on the African Court becoming functional; and
• Promote direct access by individuals to take cases directly to the African Court.

Track Record

To date, the Coalition has combined the leveraging of technical expertise and strategic legislative advocacy to good effect. Its decentralized, network-based mode of operation allows it to lobby and ensure an expanded presence in different parts of the continent. Its intimate knowledge of the processes and players around the African Court ensures excellent access to the African Union, the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights, and other key advocacy targets.

At a technical level, the Coalition has registered significant success so far. One milestone is the substantive technical role the Coalition played in the process leading to the coming into force of the Protocol creating the African Court in January 2004. Once the Protocol came into force, the Coalition prepared authoritative and credible guidelines on the nomination and election of judges to the Court. The Coalition was also a key contributor to the drafting of the resolution to merge the African Court on Human and People’s Rights Court with the African Court of Justice. In anticipation of the AU elaborating a protocol to integrate the two courts, the Coalition convened a working group to draft a model protocol in March 2005. This model protocol was distributed to ambassadors at the AU headquarters and the AU Commission. The current draft protocol integrating the two courts, adopted by the African Commission at its 38th session in November 2005, includes a number of the Coalition’s ideas.

In terms of advocacy, the Coalition has kept the African Court firmly on the agenda of the twice-yearly sessions of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights. Coalition representatives regularly intervene in these sessions and routinely participate in the civil society forum held prior to the sessions of the African Commission as they relate to the African Court. Through persistent and well-targeted lobbying, the Coalition has been able to influence decision-makers on key aspects affecting the creation of the African Court. In particular, the Coalition was influential in pushing for continuation of the processes towards the functioning of the African Court pending the outcome of the decision to merge the human rights and justice courts. Furthermore, the Coalition has maintained that the process towards the integration of the two courts should not compromise the human rights mandate of the African Court.

As a direct result of the Coalition’s expert input, combined with strategic advocacy and lobbying directed at AU member states, a further seven member states have ratified the Protocol. The Coalition now plans to step up its lobbying efforts to ensure that all member states ratify the Protocol and enshrine its provisions in national law.

Since May 2004, and on a quarterly basis, the Coalition has published a newsletter, ‘Do it Right’, in English and French. A number of other documents have been produced in English, French and Arabic. The Coalition’s website, also available in the three languages, is attracting growing interest from individuals or organizations wishing to join the Coalition and or requesting for additional information relating to the African Court, the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, and the Coalition itself. The Coalition has also published a guide on the Protocol establishing the African Court in five languages – French, English, Arabic, Portuguese and Kiswahili.

Challenges

The challenges facing the Coalition are emblematic of decentralized advocacy networks working trans-nationally across Africa.

Working Arrangements: The Secretariat function is shared between two organizations, the Human Rights Institute of South Africa (HURISA) in South Africa and Alliances for Africa in Nigeria. The HURISA hub takes the lead on program development and implementation, and hosts the overall Coalition coordinator, while the Alliances hub published the newsletter, manages the website and is responsible for communication. At sub-regional level, the Coalition is represented by five focal points: the Legal Assistance Centre (Windhoek, Namibia – Southern Africa); Foundation for Human Rights Initiative (Kampala, Uganda – East Africa); Association pour le Droits de l’Homme et l’Univers Carcéral (Brazzaville, Congo – Central Africa); Rencontre Africaine pour le Defence de Droit de l’Homme (Dakar, Senegal – West Africa); and the Arab Centre for the Independence of the Judiciary and the Legal Profession (Cairo, Egypt – North Africa). The Cape Verdienne Association for Women Lawyers (Praia, Cabo Verde) represents the Coalition in Lusophone Africa, while the Open Society Justice Initiative and the International Centre for the Legal Protection of Human Rights are responsible for AU liaison.

This complex arrangement raises questions of coordination, all the more so since the secretariat employs two half-time staff members – the coordinator and a Lagos-based colleague (in addition to a full-time program officer, program assistant and intern in Lagos for the African Court Project). As a result, the fledgling network finds itself increasingly stretched amid growing demand for engagement. The weak secretariat function means the Coalition is unable to effectively manage its membership, estimated to number anything from 300 to 600 organizations and individuals. Overall, institutional capacity is weak, communication is less than optimal, and a working culture based on common purpose has still not been institutionalized.

Governance: The Coalition’s current governance structure reflects the growing pains of the network. There is no properly-constituted board. Instead, a hands-on Management Committee made up of a chair, the focal points and liaison advisors provides policy and strategic guidance to the secretariat. The coordinator reports directly to the chair of the Management Committee, which meets periodically. To date, the Coalition is not legally registered as a unitary entity, though plans to do so and to establish a board are underway. This has major implications in terms of accountability, transparency and unity of purpose. While different organizational elements of the secretariat are empowered to raise funds on behalf of the Coalition, and while all proposals state clearly that they relate to activities of the Coalition, they do so independently and account for these funds separately.

Funding: The following donors support the Coalition’s work, including the Open Society Foundation for South Africa (OSFSA), Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa (OSISA), Swedish NGO Foundation, Ford Foundation, International Commission of Jurists, and the MacArthur Foundation. In volume terms, funding does not appear to be in short supply. In 2006 the Alliances for Africa hub received a three-year grant of US$ 400,000 from MacArthur to support the establishment an effective African Court. For the first year of the grant, 2006-2007, it is estimated that $175,000 will be spent. The HURISA hub’s annual budget is roughly US$ 107,000.

However, aside from questions of volume, a number of challenges arise. One is that so far, the lion’s share of this funding has been project-based, and has not been configured in such a way as to advance institution-building or strengthening. A second concern is that in light the decentralized nature of the Coalition, a proportion of funding is geo-specific, provided by sub-regional programs of donors. For example, the HURISA component of the Coalition Secretariat successfully raised funds from the OSFSA and OSISA to cover administrative, translation, travel and personnel costs for the period October 2006 – October 2007. Included is an allocation of funds for geographical focal point support, limited by their nature as they only help focal points meet telephone, fax and local transport costs. The HURISA hub is eligible for support from OSISA because it is based in a Southern African capital. With the planned establishment of a unified secretariat in Arusha, Tanzania later this year (see below), and much of the current funding due to expire in August, there are concerns that sub-regional funding may not necessarily be as readily available as it has been with the decentralized model.

A third concern, highlighted earlier, is the surfeit in accountability and transparency, concomitant with the legal status issue, that surrounds current fund-raising by member organizations of the Coalition. Since funds can only be received by legally registered entities, fund-raising is undertaken independently by the core institutions, on the basis of an agreed set of activities but with little or no coordination.

Opportunities

Spearheaded by the Management Committee, the Coalition is taking a number of steps to address the challenges highlighted above. One is its plan to locate its headquarters in Arusha, Tanzania in late 2007, alongside the African Court, currently based in Addis Ababa but in the process of moving to Arusha. This provides a significant opportunity to unify and strengthen the secretariat function to ensure that the scale of the Coalition’s ambition is matched by adequate staffing and systems. This will provide an opportunity to strengthen membership participation as a key to the Coalition’s future legitimacy and credibility.

A related and crucial aspect of this institutionalization is the ongoing plan to register the Coalition as a legal entity under Tanzanian law. Doing so will necessitate drafting a robust constitution and establishing an Africa-wide board, as well as the putting in place of more accountable, transparent and efficient systems of collective decision-making and management.

Programmatically, raising awareness on the existence of the African Court, and identifying the Coalition’s approach to litigation and its relationship with the African Court will be critical areas of engagement in the forthcoming year. Furthermore, the Coalition will need to heighten its presence at the AU Commission in Addis Ababa as well as at AU Summits. Close monitoring of debates on the draft protocol integrating the two courts and the immediate functioning of the human rights Courts will be important activities. It will also be important for the Coalition to improve its management of what is a diverse membership, spanning several languages.

The changing focus of human rights coalitions, such as the Coalition on the International Criminal Court, means that attention is now turning to African institutions. Herein lies an opportunity for a wider resource pool. Also, given that the Coalition is the only body concentrating on the creation of the African judicial system places it in a position of influence. Increasingly it will be looked upon for information and expertise.

Donors, and in particular private foundations, could make a significant contribution to strengthening the continental human rights landscape by providing the following kinds of support to the Coalition: a) financial and technical institutional strengthening support; b) core funding to cover secretariat running costs; and c) core as well as project-based funding to support the Coalition’s expanded work program. It is significant that private foundations constitute the majority among the Coalition’s main funders, and efforts could therefore be usefully made to promote greater donor coherence and more sustainable support.