SOURCE: GNA
The Government of Tanzania has reiterated its commitment to honouring the agreement of hosting the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights at Arusha, Tanzania and implementing it to the letter and spirit.
“I also wish to reaffirm Tanzania’s pledge and readiness to engage with all relevant stakeholders in order to preserve the African Court,” Dr Philip I. Mpango, the Vice President of Tanzania, stated at the opening of the 2023 African Court Judicial Year in Arusha.
In a speech made available to the Ghana News Agency, he said: “The Tanzanian President, Dr Samia Suluhu Hassan, wants to assure the African Court that the Government attaches great importance to the work of the African Continental Court.”
“The government and people of Tanzanian also commend the achievements made so far in pursuit of an Africa of good governance, democracy, respect for human rights, justice and the rule of law as articulated by Aspiration 3 of Agenda 2063: The Africa we want.”
He called on the Court to come up with measures that would further enhance integration of jurisprudence of regional and international human rights mechanisms into national systems.
Dr Mpango recommended that the African Court promoted and integrated the use of information and communication technology (ICT) in the court systems to enable judges and advocates to easily access legal materials from other jurisdictions.
He called for the conduct of judicial dialogues through symposiums and other platforms to bring together participants from different jurisdictions.
“This may contribute to cross-fertilization of ideas between individuals of different legal systems and trigger integration of foreign jurisprudence with national systems when such individuals assume responsibilities in their respective jurisdictions,” he said.
Dr Mpango, however, identified some challenges that may hinder the integration, which included the potential of some judges arbitrarily making references to decisions favorable to their opinions while glossing over the domestic context, laws and procedures.
“Under such circumstances, judges may refer certain decisions to justify their preconceived judgement instead of making an in-depth analysis of domestic precedents applicable to the case at hand,” he said.
“In this regard, while I encourage integration of jurisprudence of regional, and international human rights mechanisms to national systems, I wish to point out the preservation of the autonomy of the judiciary of national systems.”
He noted that ideally, the integration should be done within the context of domestic laws and legal procedures.
“In my simple understanding, the law requires that courts must carefully observe the similarities of the cases before applying the principles of a foreign court to a domestic situation.”
Dr Mpango noted that the jurisprudence of regional and international human rights mechanisms was persuasive and not authoritative, and that references to foreign jurisprudence were only inspiration for judges to determine a case at hand.
The Tanzanian Vice President reiterated the responsibility of the judiciary to interpret laws in the dispensation of justice, therefore, the integration of jurisprudence of regional and international human rights mechanisms should be done with the view to preserving the rule of law.