ACHPR Holds 50th Ordinary Session Today

The African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR) today Monday, August 27, 2018 begins its 50th ordinary session in Arusha, Tanzania with the swearing in of three new judges elected during the 31st African Union Heads of State Summit in Nouakchott, Mauritania.

According to a release from the Court at its headquarters in in Arusha, the ceremony will be graced by the vice president of the United Republic of Tanzania, H.E. Samia Hassan Suluhu.

The release says the three newly elected judges include Hon. Imani Aboud from Tanzania; Hon. Stella Isibhakhomen Anukam of Nigeria and Hon. Blaise Tchikaye from Congo. The Judges following their induction will among other things examine over ten applications currently before the Court during their four-week session to stretches up to September 21, 2018.

The release went on indicate that the ACHPR will also convene her ‘9th Extra-Ordinary Session’ to be held from 24 to 28 September, 2018.

The swearing-in ceremony will be live streamed via link https://www.youtube.com/user/africancourt/channels/live from 010H00 to 1130HOO, the release added.

The newly elected Justices are coming in as replacement for Hon. Justice Gérald Niyungeko of Burundi and Hon. Justice El Hadji Guissé, native of Senegal who both have retired after serving two terms each, and Hon Justice Solomy Balungi Bossa from Uganda, who resigned in February 2018 to take up a position as Judge of the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Netherlands.

Hon. Justice Aboud is Judge of the High Court in Dares Salaam, Tanzania; Hon. Justice Anukam is the Director of International and Comparative Law Department in the Federal Ministry of Justice in Abuja, Nigeria; and Hon Blaise Tchikaya is a Professor of International Public Law at the University of Paris, France.

The Court is composed of eleven Judges, nationals of member states of the African Union elected in their individual capacity.  The Court meets four times a year in ordinary sessions and may hold extra-ordinary sessions. As of July 1, 2018, the Court had received one hundred and eighty (180) applications and has finalized forty-five, the release concluded.