Decision of the African Court Is Final – Chief Justice

Accra, Dec. 12, CDA Consult – Ms Justice Sophia A. B. Akuffo, the Chief Justice on Tuesday affirmed that the decision of the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights is final, “Ghana has empowered the African Court to receive communications or claims from individuals, and accepted to be bound by the outcomes of such communications”.

The Ghanaian Chief Justice noted: “Courts speak through their judgments and rulings. No issue of the mandate of the African Court was considered in the ruling of the Supreme Court of Ghana; and no issue of the mandate was ruled upon.

“At least, this does not appear expressly from the ruling of the Supreme Court. There is not a single word, expression or dictum in the ruling that can be used as evidence or basis to suggest or conclude that the Supreme Court of Ghana spited the African Court or sought to undermine its integrity”.

Justice Akuffo stated in a speech read on her behalf by Justice Anthony Kojo Yeboah, a Justice of the High Court at a Capacity Building Training on the Rules of Procedure before the African Court, which is being organized in Accra by the African Court Coalition and the Greater Accra Branch of the Ghana Bar Association.

The Chief Justice who is also a former President of the African Court noted that “under Ghana’s 1992 Constitution, sovereignty resides in the people of Ghana and the Constitution, is the supreme law.

“The apex court – the Supreme Court of Ghana is the final court of the land, and is not answerable to any other person or entity in the execution of its constitutional mandate. The decision of the Supreme Court is as final as the decision of the African Court, and this is where the battle of finals or the judicial turf war appears to begin”.

Justice Akuffo explained that the inescapable fact is that, notwithstanding the finality of the decisions of the national court, that is the Supreme Court, the aggrieved individual is entitled under the Protocol to proceed to the African Court, which is the supra-national court. “This is possible in matters of human and peoples’ rights.

Recently, an applicant in a Civil Motion who had had his communication admitted and placed before the African Court sought to have the execution proceedings pending in a court in Ghana stayed to abide the outcome of the proceedings before the African Court.

The Supreme Court of Ghana refused the application for stay of execution proceedings. “Some of the public commentaries on the ruling tended to give the unfortunate impression that the Supreme Court decision sought to or did undermine the integrity or mandate of the African Court. Far from it, Courts speak through their judgments and rulings”.

The Chief Justice therefore recommended that “we strongly ignore any suggestions that there is a gridlock between the Supreme Court of Ghana and the African Court”.

She however noted that there are significant lessons to learn from this case; “our apex court, by reason of the Protocol to the African Charter, henceforth, must not only speak to the parties and their legal counsels when delivering judgments in matters of fundamental human and peoples’ rights, but must also speak to the African Commission and the African Court”.

The former African Court President noted that in other words, a judicial discourse, albeit from a distance, must be allowed to evolve between the African Court and the national apex courts. “National apex courts, like our Supreme Court, must now take the African Court into account in the development of its jurisprudence in the area of human and peoples’ rights.

“Similarly, the African Court must take the national apex courts into account in coming to its decisions. In doing so, the African Court must understand the peculiarities of national constitutions and the constitutional mandate of the relevant apex courts.

“This would avoid gridlocks that will not help the integrity of both the national and the supra-national courts. A court ought never to make orders that are impossible to obey; and the greatest threat to the integrity of a court is legitimate disregard of its orders. We need both our apex courts and the African Court”.

Mr Dieu-Donne Wedi, Executive Secretary of the African Court Coalition (ACC) explained that the ACC which is a network of non-governmental organisations and independent national human rights institutions sees to the promotion of the Protocol to the African Charter.

He said the key purpose for its establishment is to have an effective and independent African Court in order to provide redress to victims of human rights violations and strengthen the human rights protection system in Africa.

Participants will be schooled in African Court and its works, Complementary between the African Court and the African Commission, Submission of cases and admissibility requirements, Grand breaking jurisprudence of the African Court, the Advisory opinion of the African and Implementation of the decisions of the African Court.

Mr Wedi, Greater Accra Gba President, Justice Yeboah And Prof Segnonna Horace Adjolohoun, African Court Principal Legal Officer