By Francis Ameyibor
Tema, June 17, GNA – Lady Justice Imani Daud Aboud has been re-elected President of the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights for a second and final term of two years, while Justice Sacko Modibo was elected as the Vice President.
The two were elected at the opening of the Pan-African Judicial Organ’s 69th Ordinary Session.
Justice Aboud commended the African Court Judges for their confidence in her leadership over the past two years, which necessitated her unanimous re-election.
“I am overwhelmed by the confidence my colleagues have placed in me, and I am sincerely grateful to them,” she said.
According to a brief of Lady Justice Aboud available to the Ghana News Agency, she is a national of Tanzania and was elected as Judge of the African Court in July 2018.
She was re-elected for a second and final term of six years at the 34th African Union Heads of State and Government ordinary summit in February 2021, after which she was elected as the substantive President of the African Court.
She holds a Master of Laws (Malta) and a Bachelor of Laws (University of Dar es Salaam).
Justice Modibo, a citizen of Mali, was elected judge of the African Court in February 2021 for a six-year term.
He holds a master’s degree in law from the Faculty of Legal and Political Sciences (Mali) and four other university degrees in law obtained at the Ahmed Baba University (Mali), the Jean Moulin Three University (France), and the Nice Sophia Antipolis University (France).
Justice Modibo was recently appointed Judge of the Supreme Court of Mali.
The African Court is a continental court established by African countries to ensure the protection of human and peoples’ rights in Africa and to complement and reinforce the functions of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights.
It was established pursuant to Article 1 of the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Establishment of an African Court (the Protocol), which was adopted by Member States of the then Organization of African Unity (OAU) in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, in June 1998.
The Protocol came into force on January 25, 2004. The African Court officially started its operations in July 2006 in Addis Ababa and, a year later, moved to its permanent seat in Arusha, Tanzania.
The African Court is composed of eleven judges, all nationals of Member States of the African Union, elected in their individual capacities.
It meets four times a year in Ordinary Sessions and may hold extra-ordinary sessions.
GNA