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In line with its Constitutional mandate to advocate for both the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights and the merged Court, the African Court Coalition is currently undertaking advocacy for the ratification of the Protocol on Amendments to the Protocol on the Statute of the African Court of Justice and Human Rights (the Malabo Protocol). The Malabo Protocol is aimed to expand the current African Court and create ‘The African Court of Justice and Human and Peoples’ Rights’.

Through support from the Open Society Foundations (OSF), the Coalition has been working with partners at national level on the advocacy for the ratification of the Malabo Protocol.

In Kenya, through our country coordinator, Mr. Edigah Kavuravu, we have been able to form a network of partnership with various institutions which have joined hands to advocate for the ratification of the Malabo Protocol in Kenya, the partnership has been formed with the following institutions; International Commission of Jurists – ICJ-Kenya, the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (KNCHR), Strathmore Law Clinic and the Law Society of Kenya (LSK).

The Coalition has also formed a partnership with Centre for Human Rights and Rehabilitation (CHRR) in Malawi for the same advocacy. Updates on the Malawi network for the Malabo Protocol advocacy will be given in due course.

In the course of national level advocacies, our country coordinator in Kenya participated at the Second National Conference on Criminal Justice Reforms organized by the Kenya National Council on Administration of Justice (NCAJ) from 10 -12 May where he had an opportunity to make contributions on the need to create national human rights and criminal justice mechanisms that compliment a regional mechanism in order to strengthen the human rights and criminal justice systems in Africa. The coordinator also had an opportunity to engage directly with State actors during the conference. Other Kenya network partners who participated at the NCAJ Conference are ICJ-Kenya, KNCHR and LSK.

On the same line of advocacy activities, our coordinator also had a chance to train staff of the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights about the Malabo Protocol on 11 May 2022, during the KNCHR Capacity building for Commissioners and staff on African Union Human Rights treaties and corresponding treaty body mechanisms. This platform offered an opportunity for create a better understanding of the Malabo Protocol amongst Commissioners and staff of KNCHR.

More updates will be given on the advocacy activities with Coalition partners at national level.

The Coalition will also undertake advocacy activities at the continental level including dialogues with stakeholders to reflect on the Malabo Protocol and the future African Court of Justice and Human and Peoples’ Rights.

Ratification status of the Malabo Protocol

Eight years after the Malabo Protocol was adopted in 2014 by the African Union Summit in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, no single AU Member State has ratified it. 15 Member States have however signed it, these are; Benin, Chad, Comoros, Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Ghana, Guinea Bissau, Guinea, Kenya, Mozambique, Mauritania, Sierra Leone, Sao Tome & Principe, Togo and Uganda. These make 15 out of 55 AU member States.