The Foreign Affairs Committee of the National Assembly yesterday, June 25, 2014, examined the bill to authorise the President of the Republic to ratify the protocol on the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights on the establishment of an African Court on Human and People’s Rights adopted on June 10, 1998 at Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.

The bill was defended in committee by the Minister Delegate in the Ministry of Justice, Jean Pierre Fogui, in the presence of the Minister Delegate in the Ministry of Territorial Administration and Decentralisation, Jules Doret Ndongo.

The Minister Delegate in the Ministry of External Relations in charge of Relations with the Commonwealth, Joseph Dion Ngute, also sat through the examination process.

Earlier, during a plenary on June 24, 2014, the First Vice Speaker of the National Assembly, Hon. Hilarion Etong, informed MPs that government had tabled a bill to that effect at the chairmen’s conference, chaired by House Speaker, Hon. Cavaye Yeguie Djibril.

The protocol was adopted by Heads of State and Government of the then Organisation of African Unity in Ouagadougou in 1998 and signed in Cameroon on July 25, 2007.

The ratification of the protocol provides Cameroon with a dual legal system where the civil and common law coexist, offering many opportunities in terms of recruitment of nationals.

The court seeks to complement the actions of the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights by adopting decisions that are legally-binding on the parties.

Its decisions may punish human rights violations and ensure compensation for victims. The court is expected to merge with the Court of Justice of the African Union to give birth to the African Court of Justice and Human Rights, the government has opted for the ratification of the said protocol in response to many requests by African institutions involved in the promotion and protection of human rights, pending the protocol establishing the African Court of Justice, which is yet to obtain the number of ratifications required for its entry into force.

The African Court on Human and People’s Rights has its seat in Arusha, Tanzania.

It comprises11 judges, nationals of African Union member States elected in an individual capacity by the African Union Assembly of Heads of State and Government for a six-year term, renewable once.

Only the President of the Court performs his duties on a full-time basis. The other 10 judges perform their duties on a part-time basis. The pioneer judges of the court were sworn in on July 1, 2006.