Pres. Boakai Submits Legislation To Create African Court On Human Rights

By Dorcas T. Gboerreh-Boe

MONROVIA, June 29 (LINA) – The Plenary of the House of Representatives has mandated its committees on Executive, Foreign Affairs, Good Governance, Human Rights and Judiciary to review a bill seeking the establishment of an African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights. 

Plenary’s decision follows a communication from President Joseph N. Boakai submitting to the House of Representatives for ratification, the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights on the Establishment of an African Court on Human and People's Rights. 

In his Communication to the Plenary on Thursday, June 27, 2024, President Boakai said, the African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights was established pursuant to Article One of the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights adopted in 1998, in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. 

The Liberian leader further indicated that the jurisdiction of the Court shall extend to all cases and disputes submitted to it concerning the interpretation and application of the Charter, the Protocol, and any other relevant Human Rights Instrument ratified by the States concerned adding that the Protocol entered into force on 25 January 2004. 

He said Liberia is one of those states that participated in the negotiation of the African Charter and the Protocol establishing the Court, stressing that Liberia signed the Protocol on June 9, 1998, but has not ratified the Protocol.

“As a member of the African Union (AU), an organization with the objective to protect human and peoples' Rights in accordance with the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights and other relevant human rights instruments, the need to ratify this Protocol cannot be overemphasized,” President Boakai said.

He added that “Chapter III, Article 11 of the Liberian Constitution clearly indicates our commitment to the protection of human rights as demonstrated by our participation in initiatives aiming at strengthening the normative and institutional frameworks of international and regional human rights systems, and the inclusion in our Constitution of an enumeration of the fundamental rights that every person is entitled to, irrespective of ethnic background, race, sex, creed, place of origin or political opinion”. 

According to President Boakai, The ratification of this Protocol would not just enable individuals and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to access this international Court, but will allow Liberia as a State Party, a chance to nominate judges in the bench of the Court, as well as providing an opportunity to shape and contribute to the institutional set-up of the Court and strengthening its capacity to deal with human rights issues brought before it. 

“Human rights issues have been a topic of discussion in our country every day. Most of our people have cried out that human rights violations have been left unpunished or disregarded,” Pres. Boakai stated.

Meanwhile, following a motion from Maryland County Representative P. Mike Jury, the plenary of the House of Representatives unanimously voted to turn the communication over to the joint committee for revision and is expected to report within two weeks.