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The Coalition for an Effective African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights (the African Court Coalition) invites applications from English speaking legal practitioners to participate in a 3-day capacity building training on the engagement with the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights (the African Court) and the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (the African Commission). Please note that online training for Portuguese and French speaking legal practitioners will take place in July 2021 and August 2021 and a call for application for such trainings will be sent out in due time. This workshop is organized under the auspices of the Raoul Wallenberg Institute (RWI) Regional Africa Programme which is financed by the Swedish Development Cooperation (Sida).

Background : The African Court Coalition currently partners with the Raoul Wallenberg Institute (RWI) in the implementation of RWI’s Regional Africa Program, with the financial support from the Swedish Development Cooperation (Sida). The Regional Africa Program seeks to address concerns of insufficient implementation of human rights commitments in the region. The overall mandate of the African Court Coalition under the RWI Regional Africa Program is working towards enhancing the performance of the African Court and implementation of its decisions, as well as strengthening the complementary relationship between the African Court and the African Commission.

Objective of the Training : The main objective of the online capacity building training is to build capacity for legal practitioners and enable effective engagement with the African Court and the African Commission; and also enhance knowledge on the available implementation mechanisms and effective ways to follow up and influence implementation of decisions of the African Court and the African Commission.
The training also seeks to formulate strategies to encourage more African Union (AU) Member States to ratify and deposit the required declaration under Article 34(6) of the African Court Protocol.

Training Dates and Topics : The capacity building training will be provided for three consecutive days from 28 to 30 June 2021 and will cover topics as shown on the table below;

Expected Outcomes : It is expected that at the end of the workshop each participant will acquire sufficient knowledge on the functions and procedure of the African Court and the African Commission, as well as knowledge on the strategies for implementation of their decisions.
It is also expected that there will be more inclusion of gender issues when engaging with the African Court and the African Commission, specifically issues pertaining to women’s rights which will help in the enforcement of women’s rights in the continent and influence national policy change or formulation of gender sensitive policies.
Further to this, the training will help participants in the identification of potential cases that can be submitted to the African Court; and also formulate strategies that will encourage ratification of the African Court Protocol by more AU Member states as well as deposit of Article 34(6) Declaration of the African Court Protocol.

Targeted Participants : The training targets legal practitioners who have a strong commitment to Human Rights and are actively working with Civil Society Organisations, Human Rights Institutions and Academic Institutions in Africa. Preference will be given to legal practitioners who have been actively involved in human rights related work in Africa for at least the last 2 years. Considerations will also be given to applicants who do not have a legal background but who are actively working in the human rights field in Africa.

Certificate of Participation : Upon successful participation and completion of the full three training days, participants will be given certificates acknowledging their participation in the online training.