Professor Pacifique Manirakiza to Consult on African Court of Justice Protocol
Professor Pacifique Manirakiza has been invited to take part in a consultation of African Union and international law experts on proposed amendments to a draft Protocol on the Statute of the African Court of Justice and Human Rights.
At the invitation of the Pan African Lawyers Union (PALU) and the International Criminal Law Centre (ICLC) of the Open University of Tanzania, Prof. Manirakiza will visit Nairobi on January 19 and 20, 2011 to participate in the urgent consultation. The consultation seeks to analyze the draft Protocol on the Statute of the African Court of Justice and Human Rights to determine the international criminal jurisdiction of the Court with respect to War Crimes, Crimes against Humanity and Genocide.
The mandate of the group of experts is twofold:
1.) Independently examine the draft Protocol and Accompanying Report, and
2.) Make recommendations for improvement, which will be shared with the African Union and could further be used in advocacy with Member States.
Prof. Manirakiza has long focused his research on the subject of regionalizing international criminal justice in an African context. Notably, he presented a paper entitled “Towards an African Criminal Court: Contribution or Obstruction to the International Criminal Justice” at an international conference entitled Africa and the Future of the International Criminal Justice, held in Johannesburg in July of 2010. His paper will be published in 2011.