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East African Court of Justice - Extended Jurisdiction

In regional news, The East African Court of Justice (EACJ) can now handle crimes of international proportion such as genocide, crimes against humanity, terrorism and war crimes following endorsement by East African Community Heads of State.
The extension of the Court's mandate was made during the EAC Heads of State Summit in Nairobi, Kenya, last week, that was held under the theme, "Deepening and accelerating integration: Towards Political Federation."

The EACJ is the judicial body of the East African Community (EAC). The Court has jurisdiction over the interpretation and application of the East African Treaty of 1999. The Court does not have competence to hear individual complaints of alleged violations of human rights law. 

The Treaty for the Establishment of the East African Community sets out in Article 27 that, “The Court shall have such other original, appellate, human rights and other jurisdiction as will be determined by the Council at a suitable subsequent date. To this end, the Partner States shall conclude a protocol to operationalise the extended jurisdiction.”

Efforts to operationalise this extended jurisdiction begun many years ago culminating in May 2005 when the Council of Ministers issued a Draft Protocol to operationalise the Extended Jurisdiction of the East African Court of Justice. Nearly 10 years later, the Protocol has not yet been approved.

It is therefore suspect that the Summit would opt to rush to give the Court jurisdiction over International Crimes and Terrorism while neglecting a nearly 10 year wait for the Court's Human Rights Jurisdiction. Interestingly, international crimes issues still significantly touch on human rights violations. 

 The Summit's decision is not surprising given the recent utterances and push by organs of the EAC including the Summit and the East African Legislative Assembly(EALA) to have the cases against Kenya's President Kenyatta, Deputy President Ruto and Journalist Sang brought to Arusha. Following this, the Court's Registrar announced that it had the capacity to try international crimes. 

The Court has however not shied away from adjudicating over matters touching on human rights. The Court has creatively dealt with human rights issues using Rule of law provisions e.g. in the Katabazi Case  where the court did not evaluate the claims within a human rights framework but found that the respondent had violated the principle of the rule of law and consequently contravened the Treaty. 

If the region is focused on improving the lives and dignity of its over 140 Million citizens, then the Human Rights language should form a constant part of the discussions around regional integration. It is hoped that the Protocol will be signed soon and the same reflected in constitutions and laws of all the five EAC member states. 
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