CHRR pens AU on sitting presidents’ immunity
Centre for Human Rights Rehabilitation (CHRR), in partnership with other 27 international NGOs, has penned ministers of Justice and attorneys general in the African Union (AU) member States on immunising sitting heads of States from any charges.
The letter, written ahead of the African Justice Ministers and Attorneys General’s meeting which starts today in Addis Ababa, seeks the addressee’s consideration of Draft Protocol on Amendments to the Protocol on the Statute of the African Court on Justice and Human Right (African Court).
The draft protocol, which is expected to provide immunity for sitting heads of state and other high-level government officials before the African Court proposes an expansion of the African Court to include criminal jurisdiction over genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity
The letter, dated May 5, has said the NGOs are gravely alarmed by the provision of any immunity for serious crimes committed in violation of international law and governments should oppose such immunity in the draft protocol.
“The African Union’s (AU) Constitutive Act represents a significant declaration of the union’s unequivocal rejection of impunity, and commitment of the AU to intervene in a member state with respect to genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity, as provided under articles 4 (o) and (h).
“Immunity for sitting heads of state and other high-level officials for serious crimes would represent a major retreat from these objectives and be inconsistent with the spirit of the AU Constitutive Act,” reads the letter in part.
