Adhere to African Court’s standards, states told amid changing of the guard
A panel of 11 judges elected Justice Sacko Modibo and Lady Justice Bensaoula Chafika new President and Vice President of the continental human and peoples' rights facility.respectively.
TUESDAY June 3, 2025
By Patty Magubira
The Tranquility News Reporter, Tanzania
The outgoing president of the African Court on Human and People’s Rights, Justice Imani Daud Aboud, has pleaded with African Union member states to implement and comply with decisions the continental facility delivers.
Failure to implement and comply with court’s decisions renders the organ meaningless among individuals and non-governmental organisations filing cases at the facility, she said at the seat of the court in Arusha, Tanzania, on Monday June 2, 2025.
Lady Justice Aboud, Tanzania national, was addressing media practitioners shortly after a panel of 11 judges of the court unanimously elected her successor, Justice Sacko Modibo, from Mali.
The judges also elected Lady Justice Bensaoula Chafika from Algeria Vice President, assuming the mantle of Justice Modibo, the incumbent President, who served the post for two years before he rose to the helm
This court has not been established to show off its existence, but rather for a purpose which is still valid,” Lady Justice Imani Daud Aboud, the outgoing president of the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights.
Justice Modibo pledged to continue with programmes he carried out along with Lady Justice Aboud, including ensuring the court’s decisions are implemented and complied with to ensure all African countries respect human and peoples’ rights.
“This court has not been established to show off its existence, but rather for a purpose which is still valid,” said Lady Justice Aboud, explaining that the court was tasked with setting standards to all African Union (AU) member states.
Currently, she said, the court’s hands were tied because the mandate of overseeing implementation of its decisions belonged to the AU Executive Council comprising foreign ministers.
The failure to implement and comply with the court’s decisions was high on agenda when the outgoing president paid courtesy call on the Chairperson of the AU Commission, Mr Mahamoud Ali Youssouf, at the union headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, towards the end of last month.
Lady Justice Aboud told the newly elected AU Commission Chairperson that the failure to implement and comply with decisions was one of the key challenges hindering not only the work of the African Court, but also many other international courts, including in Europe and US.
Challenging the African Court’s work also is the fact that only 34 out of 55 AU member states have ratified its Protocol, with only seven of them depositing declaration to allow individuals and NGOs to directly access the facility as stipulated in Article 34(6) of the same.
Lady Justice Aboud said she was proud of leaving the seat in safe hands with which they jointly promoted the court, making it known in and outside the continent.
Justice Modibo, she said, knew what she wished were accomplished, including strategies for ensuring Africans understood the court and coerced their governments to ratify the protocol and deposit the declaration for the facility to hear their cases on violation of human and peoples’ rights.
I thank God; it is not easy to get the opportunity of leading the court for four consecutive years,” Lady Justice Imani Daud Aboud, the outgoing president of the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights.
“I thank God; it is not easy to get the opportunity of leading the court for four consecutive years,” she said, further extending her gratitude to her fellow judges for backing her, and staff for making her job easy.
“I also thank the Tanzania government under President Samia Suluhu Hassan for according the court due cooperation,” she said, asking the host administration to continue supporting the court’s new leadership.
Taking stock of her leadership, Lady Justice Aboud said she had united staff and boosted their morale at work, fostering significant changes to judicial work and other activities, including engaging the media in various events.
Her leadership had created new activities such as the ceremony for flagging off each judicial year of the court.
The ceremony, she said, had partly made the court and its activities well known to its key stakeholders.
As a result, the number of the court’s local and foreign stakeholders had increased to include universities, schools, national courts, and that Memorandum of Understanding entered with them would take the facility to the next level.
“I am also proud to see the process of building the court’s own permanent residential premises, which dates back to over 15 years, is at final stages. This is a big achievement,” she said, hinting that the new building might be officially inaugurated in three months’ timeΩ
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The Tranquility News Reporter/Sub Editor, Tanzania
Patty Magubira is an experienced environmental and business editor whose career started at the Tanzania's state-owned newspaper - The Daily News. He is a man of perfection. Aided by his extensive training as a community forestry expert before joining Tanzania School of Journalism. Magubira had successfully held various key posts in newsrooms, giving him an unmatched connections in media fraternity. Having worked as a bureau chief in Arusha and Mwanza, he managed to build a team work, boosting sales to the highest level ever. He was then promoted to a sub-editor after completing a training in Nairobi, Kenya. His incredible experience, critical thinking and exposure are critical to the quality of any media outlet.
