Institute for Human Rights and Development in Africa
Workshop on Human Rights Litigation in Africa
10-14 May 2004
Dakar, Senegal

The Institute for Human Rights and Development in Africa will organise
a litigation workshop from 10-14 May 2004, in Dakar, Senegal.

The workshop will be bi-lingual (French/English), with simultaneous
translation, and will take place during the 35th Ordinary Session of
the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, which is also
scheduled to take place in Dakar. The public sessions of the African
Commission commence on 3 May.

Admission to the Institute’s litigation workshop will, as usual, be
competitive. This pan-African workshop, which will be the fourth in a
series that have focussed exclusively on litigation at the national
level and at the level of the African Commission, will target 20 human
rights activists engaged in NGO litigation work in Africa.

The Institute will give priority to female candidates, during the
process of selecting participants.

In applying, each participant will be required to demonstrate a clear
need for attending the workshop. They will explain how their
participation at the training would strengthen the institutional
capacity of their organisations to carry out litigation work and/or
describe other benefits that could accrue to their organisations as a
result of such participation.

Applicants will also be required to furnish outlines of potential human
rights cases or real cases that employ international or African treaty
law, which their organisations are working on. Cases could be in
various stages of development, ranging from those at the research stage
to those that have already been lodged with the appropriate forum.

The training course will be interactive, featuring a combination of
lectures, discussions, group work and simulation exercises (role-plays)
and will cover a range of subjects, viz., human rights litigation at
the national level, Article 55 litigation before the African
Commission, human rights research and documentation for litigation
purposes, press strategies for litigation or the security of human
rights defenders.

Resource people will be drawn from the ranks of academia and human
rights professionals, including members of staff of the Institute.

Economic, Social and Cultural Rights are Focus of Forthcoming
Conference in Cairo (top)

The nature of state obligations in economic, social and cultural rights
(ESCRs) is the focus of a conference to be held from 19 - 23 June 2004
in Cairo, Egypt. Organised on behalf of the African Commission for
Human and Peoples' Rights, INTERIGHTS is working with three local
partners to bring the conference to fruition - the Cairo Institute for
Human Rights Studies, the Social and Economic Rights Action Centre,
Lagos and the Centre for Human Rights Pretoria. The aim of the event is
to identify, with regards to Africa, the priorities for the African
Commission and its partners in the promotion and protection of ESCRs,
and to determine the practical measures they can take to make ESCRs
effective. We hope to generate guidelines on ESCRs and to recommend
concrete initiatives for the improved implementation of ESCRs.

The agenda for the event will be available shortly.