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Gambia: Human rights cases go online
Sunday, 14 November 2010 14:31
PANA - Human rights groups on Friday launched a list of African human rights case laws in their bid to widely circulate
such legislations in Africa. The Institute for Human Rights and Development in Africa (IHRDA) and the Human Rights Documentation Systems (HURIDOCS) launched the online case law tool, the African Human Rights Case Law Analyser, in Banjul alongside the 48th Ordinary Session of the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights.Sheila B. Keetharuth, the executive director IHRDA, said her institution had been publishing the case law of the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights (ACHPR) since 1999 and had compiled and arranged in six publications, the entire jurisprudence of the African Commission for easy use.
This, she said, demonstrated IHRDA's continuing commitment to the dissemination of edited and indexed case law of the African human rights system, which was fundamental as it established the minimum human rights protection standards for the continent.
'The protective mandate of the African Commission as well as other instances within the African Human Rights System is rendered â~live' through the litigating NGOs and other representatives of victims of human rights abuses initiated before these instances. This litigation is nourished by case law,' she said.
Ms Keetharuth said IHRDA had ensured that members of the African Human Rights System and other rights groups beyond the continent had received copies, thus helping to put the progressive human rights standards emanating from the African Commission on the world map.
She said it was right that IHRDA should work with HURIDOCS, which specialized in helping human rights organizations use information technology and documentation methods to maximize the impact of their work.
With the experience gained in publishing the compilations and concerns for facil itating better litigation in the African Human Rights System, and HURIDOCS' three decades of experience in human rights documentation, the stage was set for an interesting project, she claimed.
'Today, the use of internet-based technologies permeates every activity. If African human rights case law is to multiply its impact, and further ensure the respect of human right on the continent, its presence on the World Wide Web needs not just to be increase in number but in quality.
'The Analyser is tipped to be the most advanced and most user-friendly database of its kind anywhere in the world and the most comprehensive multilingual collection of African human rights case law with effective tools for high quality analysis.'
Keetharuth said it offered easy browsing of interrelated decisions, quick access to primary case law for each violation, highlights and commentary on relevant sections of a decision, and sharing thereof with colleagues and partners.
It will also automatically calculate the jurisprudential value of each decision based on frequency of citation. It would be a 'Facebook' for case law, she said.
Keetharuth said being the premier human rights complaint receiving body in Africa, the case law of the African Commission presented the continent's finest record of human rights jurisprudence.
She said this would give other regional and international human rights systems the opportunity to make reference to the case law in their deliberations and keep accurate track of violations and violating countries.
In 2011, the Analyser is envisioned to include decisions of other African human rights complaint handling mechanisms, such as the African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child; the African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights; the ECOWAS Court; the SADC Tribunal and any other mechanism with a human rights mandate.
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