Africa News
May 2, 2002 Thursday

Deputy President Addresses Human Rights Session

Governments and civil society organs need to work harder together to
ensure the translation of the rights in the African Charter on Human
Rights into a reality for the millions of people on the continent.
Speaking at the official opening of the 31st African Commission on
Human and People's Rights (ACHPR) session currently underway in
Pretoria, Deputy President Jacob Zuma said the legal fraternity in
particular, had a critical role to play in entrenching a human rights
culture on the continent, in partnership with government and other
civil society institutions.
'Without working together, we will never achieve our goals.' The
ACHPR was established in 1987 in Addis Ababa under the Organisation
of African Unity (OAU) African Charter to monitor Africa's human
rights issues and to ensure that countries complied with the African
Charter. Mr Zuma told delegates at the session there was a need for a
strong and effective criminal justice system on the African continent
to deal with the manifestations of human rights violations.
'Conflicts have claimed hundreds of thousands of lives and displaced
scores of people, and have also robbed ordinary people of their
rights to elect into power governments of their choice, and have
denied them basic human rights and other rights entrenched in the
African Charter for Human and People's Rights.' He said there was a
need for a vigilant and outspoken legal fraternity and judiciary in
many parts of the continent, who were not afraid to speak out against
human rights abuses in their countries in order to protect the
vulnerable.
Deputy President Zuma said a major boost in the efforts of
eradicating conflicts were the preparations for the International
Criminal Court, which is expected to start functioning during
mid-2003.
The court will have jurisdiction over genocide, war crimes and crimes
against humanity, in cases where national states are unwilling or
unable to deal with these cases.

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Shantha Rau
Information Services Coordinator
NGO Coalition for an International Criminal Court

777 UN Plaza 12th Floor
New York New York 10017
USA
Telephone +1 212 687 2176 Faxsimile +1 212 599 1332
Email [email protected]
Web http://www.iccnow.org
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