The continued reluctance by many African countries to deposit declarations for the protocol on the African Court on Human and Peoples rights has been blamed on fear.
One of Uganda’s representatives to the Pan African Parliament (PAP) Hon Onyango Kakoba says while some countries including Uganda have ratified the protocol, they do not deposit the declarations for fear of being dragged to the court by their citizens for rights violations.
He however says PAP has been given a leading role to play in ensuring that these countries go beyond signing protocols, emphasizing the need to set up a follow up mechanism on ratified protocols.
“The biggest problem is fear. And once negotiations are done and international instruments are signed, that’s the end of the story. There is no mechanism to monitor these protocols on their domestication and implementation which why PAP is now coming up to fill this gap”, said Hon Kakoba in an interview with KFM in Kampala on Friday.
The African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights is a continental court established by member states of the African Union (AU) to enhance the protection of human and peoples’ rights in Africa
So far only 28 out of the 54 African Union member states have ratified the protocol since its adoption in 1998 and of these only 7 have made the declaration.
They are Burundi, Tanzania, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Malawi and Mali.
Story By Benjamin Jumbe
