Building on the success of a project convened by the Founder of CILPA, with the institutional support of West Africa Civil Society Institute (WACSI) and a grant from the Open Society Foundation, the Technical Assistance for the AU’s Criminal Chamber for the African Court of Justice and Human and Peoples’ Rights (African Court Research Initiative), CILPA convened an Independent Experts Meeting in The Hague, from the 13th to 14th of May 2022.
The overall project goal was to offer research- based analysis that will provide technical assistance to the African Union’s Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) through which to achieve the operationalization of the African Court of Justice and Human and People’s Rights (African Court) – especially its international criminal jurisdiction as provided for under the “Malabo Protocol”.
The African Research Initiative (ACRCI) prepared draft Rules of Procedure and Evidence and draft Elements of Crimes. These documents were drafted as working documents, with the goal of providing a working basis for the judges of the future court with a possible framework for application of the Court’s governing instruments. The documents were subject to expert discussion at Geneva in early May 2019. As a core deliverable of the project, a compilation of an African Court volume, The African Court of Justice and Human and Peoples’ Rights in Context: Development and Challenges, was published by Cambridge University Press in May 2019.
The book provides the most comprehensive and in-depth analysis of the articles of the Malabo Protocol to date by a group of leading scholars and practitioners from Africa and around the world. It will be used as resource for the African Union legal office as well as academics, legal professionals, members of government, policy makers, key officials, especially its future judges. The compendium, in book form and as an open-source on-line resource, has involved over 40 distinguished academicss, authors and practitioners who have offered a nuanced view on the challenges that the future African court might face and how to recognize and address these challenges
In July 2021, ACRI commissioned Ms. Lorraine Smith-van Lin, an independent international law expert, to carry out a comprehensive review and finalization of the full draft Rules of Procedure and Evidence and the Elements of Crime, under the general supervision and guidance of Professor Charles Jalloh, Principal Investigator (PI) of the ACRI. The consultant was requested to provide high-level legal research and consultancy services to assist the PI to conclude the ACRI-Phase III research, including the review of expert comments from previous roundtables, harmonisation and consolidation of the full draft of the Rules of Procedure and Evidence and the Elements of Crimes. The consultant’s review was carried out between July and December 2021.
The purpose of the Expert Meeting, which was held under the framework of the CILPA was to discuss the expert review and to finalise Phase-III of the research and drafting process. The meeting brought together the legal experts who prepared the first drafts of the documents, the consultant reviewer, and select expert practitioners with relevant experience on the African Court and issues of international dispute settlement. The meeting provided an opportunity for all expert participants to reassess, and as necessary, to help provide ideas for revision and finalization of the draft instruments.
The consultant presented general findings of the review and analysis of the draft documents and facilitated feedback and commentary by the legal drafters and expert participants. The closed meeting was a working session with detailed examination of specific themes and provisions identified by the consultant, close consideration of the harmonisation of each of the draft rules and real-time edits to the documents. Based on the discussions in the expert meeting, the independent consultant was able to deliver a complete and consolidated Rules of Procedure and Evidence and the Elements of Crime, as well as an Annex.
