Justice Stella Anukam, a judge of the African Court on Human and Peoples Rights, has called on Nigerians to take advantage of the the existence of the court and explore ways to benefit from it.
Justice Anukam, Nigeria’s representative at the court, made the call on Thursday in Abuja at a one-day training for judiciary correspondents on the mandate and workings of the court.
The judge decried the low level of awareness of the existence of the court among Nigerians and citizens of other African countries.
“Few Nigerians and other Africans are aware of the existence of the African Court of Human and Peoples Rights even where the countries have ratified the protocol establishing the court.
” The awareness level is not what we expect it to be so we decided that besides the visit to the ECOWAS court, we should leverage on our being here in Nigeria to enlighten and sensitize Nigerians about the workings of the court.”
According to her, we believe that there is so much that Nigerians and the Nigerian government can do with the knowledge of the workings of the court.
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She said that the court was relying on Nigeria to enlighten and sensitise others on the decisions taken by the court.
Sukhdev Chhatbar, the court’s Senior Information and Communication Officer said that of the 202 applications received by the court so far, it had delivered 55 judgements.
Chhatbar also noted that applications were received by the court only where an individual or a non-governmental organisation had exhausted all available local remedies.
“Local remedies here include going through the high courts, the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court without getting any justice.”
He also said that the judgements of the court were final and not subject to appeal adding that they were legally binding and the Executive Council of the African Union was charged with monitoring the implementation of the judgments.
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The court is a continental court established by member states of the African Union to enhance the protection of human and peoples rights in Africa.
It was established to complement and reinforce the protective mandate of the African Commission on human and peoples rights often referred to as the Banjul Commission.
Since the adoption of the protocol in 1998, only 30 of the 55 member states of the AU have ratified it.
Meanwhile, only nine of the 30 states partied to the protocol have made the declaration recognizing the competence of the court to receive cases from NGOs and individuals.(NAN)