Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 9 February 2019:
LAUNCHING CEREMONY OF THE SECOND EDITION OF THE AFRICAN HUMAN RIGHTS YEARBOOK ADDRESS BY HONOURABLE SYLVAIN ORÉ
PRESIDENT OF THE AFRICAN COURT.
Your Excellencies Ambassadors of the Permanent Representatives Committee of the African
Union;
Your Excellency the Commissioner for Political Affairs of the African Union;
Honourable Soyata Maiga, Chairperson of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights;
Honourable Nanikie Goitseone Nkwe, Chairperson of the African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child;
Honourable Commissioners, Judges and Experts;
Representatives of United Nations agencies;
The Registrar of the African Court, Secretaries of the Commission and the Committee;
The Representative of the GIZ;
Members of staff of the three organs;
Distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen ;
I stand here before a wide range of representatives of Member States of the African Union;
permit me first of all to express my sincere thanks to both the members of the PRC and the Commissioner for Political Affairs for having graced this occasion with their presence or for designating someone to represent them. My thanks also go to the different Directors of the relevant Departments of the African Union for lending support to the holding of this event.
Ladies and gentlemen, today’s launching of the second edition of the African Human Rights Yearbook is for the African Court, a cause for pride and hope. It is first of all a pride because for the second year consecutively, the yearbook of the academic standard we sought as a
tool for dialogue with the academia and activists in the field of African Human Rights on common crosscutting issues concerning the Commission, the Court and the Committee has been published. This is the most eloquent testimony of the quest for complementarity among the three organs expressed by the Member States of the African Union through the Protocol
establishing the African Court. As one of the objectives identified by Member States and inscribed under Agenda 2063 of the Union, the justice of human rights cannot be effectively achieved without research, reflection and publication on topics which concern us all as Africans.
The quality and relevance of topics discussed in the articles of this edition of the yearbook speak for themselves and show that this project is a lofty initiative which should continue.
The yearbook stands as a database for the analyses of the norms of human rights jurisprudence in the African system and constitutes a sure visibility tool for the African Union and for Africa in general. This opinion is confirmed by the traditional section of the yearbook which covers the theme chosen by the African Union to guide the institution during the year.
In this second edition, there is discussion on the academia and human rights activists in Africa and abroad, on the efforts made in the fight against corruption and human rights protection on the continent.
Generally, we can express satisfaction with the continuation of the yearbook on the one hand because it fills the gap of a specialized publication on human rights in Africa. On the other,
because it deals concretely with the African continent, with the right to information and the right to education and human rights proclaimed under the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights and through many other engagements at the policy level under the aegis of
the African Union.
Guided by all these considerations, before closing my speech, I would like to make a clarion call on all the members of the Policy Organs of the African Union present here as well as to all the most senior officials of the African Union Commission to support the initiative of this yearbook and continue to put at the disposal of our three organs the necessary means to accomplish the mission assigned to us by the states which is to work towards the realization of the slogan of ‘Justice for Africans by Africans”.
Finally, I would like to sincerely thank our partners, notably, the GIZ who provided the necessary financial support for the publication of this second edition of the yearbook and the Centre for Human Rights of the University of Pretoria which coordinated the publication of the yearbook in conjunction with members of the organs and members of the international
specialized committee to whom I extend my thanks.
I wish the yearbook total success and I look forward to reading the third edition, for now, I will contend myself with the articles contained in this second edition. Long live cooperation among the Commission, the Court and the Committee; long live research and publication on human rights in Africa under the aegis of the African Union and its human rights organs and long live the African Human Rights Yearbook.
