The African Union is working to expand the mandate of its court of justice to enable it take over the International Criminal Court (ICC) cases facing top African leaders.
Attorneys general from the union are currently working on amendments that will expand the jurisdiction of the African Court of Justice and Human and Peoples’ Rights to deal with international crimes such as genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.
Legal experts from AU member states are currently gathered in Addis Ababa to finalise Africa’s common position on the ICC.
Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta, Eldoret North MP William Ruto, former public service head Francis Muthaura and radio presenter Joshua Sang are Kenyans awaiting trial at the ICC over crimes against humanity charges.
For the past two years, President Kibaki’s wing of the coalition has put up a spirited fight to have the cases against the four suspects brought for trial at home. The campaign waged in court and through diplomacy has largely been unsuccessful.
The AU effort also comes two weeks after President Kibaki successfully lobbied his peers in East Africa and secured a resolution that the jurisdiction of the regional court be expanded to cover crimes against humanity.
Then the Kenyan cases will be referred to the court.
During the AU summit in January, member states decided to form a common position on the ICC cases facing African leaders, including President Omar el Bashir of Sudan.
African Justice ministers and attorneys general are also scheduled to meet early next week to review experts’ proposals on the ICC cases and their decision will be tabled in the next AU summit.
Mr Ben Kioko head of AU’s legal council said the meeting aims to enable Africa to deal with its own legal issues without contradicting international norms.
The meeting of legal experts in Addis Ababa is an exercise to review a draft model law on universal jurisdiction for international crimes proposed by the AU Commission.
