About 200 delegates from African Union member states are expected to attend a continental judicial dialogue slated to run from November 4 to 6 in Arusha, Tanzania. Organised by the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights and the African Union, the biennial dialogue will be conducted under the theme ‘’Connecting National and International Justice.’’ Delegates will include Chief Justices, Presidents of Supreme Courts and Constitutional Courts, academia, national judiciaries and media, among others. It is a follow up of the first edition held in November 2013 in Arusha. Participants will discuss, among others, the on-going continental judicial reforms, trends on human rights jurisprudence, continuing judicial education and management of judicial institutions, quality management systems of courts and sharing of experiences from other continents. ‘’The Continental Judicial Dialogue offers an opportune occasion for productive knowledge-sharing with the goal of establishing and enhancing linkages between the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights, on the one hand, and the Regional and the National Courts, on the other hand,’’ Justice Augustino Ramadhani, the president of the African Court said in a statement. Ramadhani added that the three-day dialogue would also help enhance judicial administration and ensure quality justice across the continent. The first dialogue discussed the African human rights system in general and the relationship between the African Court and the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights in particular. The dialogue also discussed the various approaches to domestication of international human rights instruments and their application by national courts as well as the enforcement of the decisions of continental and regional courts by national institutions. One of the conclusions of the first Judicial Dialogue was that a proposal should be tabled to the African Union (AU) policy Organs that the dialogue be institutionalised within the AU and that it be held on a biennial basis. This proposal was made to the AU Policy Organs and the Executive Council of the African Union accepted the proposal.
