The African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights (AfCHPR) has been urged to act on a disputed provision on NGOs.
Declaration 34 of the Court which allowed NGOs and individuals to file cases before it has divided the African countries.
While the majority of African Union member states have shunned it, some countries which signed it have withdrawn.
The Declaration was a subject of discussion at the forum of lawyers from Africa with speakers calling for the Court to act on the matter.
The Pan African Lawyers' Union (Palu) President Chief Emeka Obegolu said failure by the African states to sign the provision was a setback in delivery of justice.
It also undermined enforcement of the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights which guarantees citizens of their fundamental rights.
Under the Charter, individuals and human rights groups cannot bring cases before the Court unless their country has signed the Declaration.
"Unfortunately, this is a major shortcoming for the Court", he told the annual conference and Triennial General Assembly of the legal facility based in Arusha.
Moreover, he said, even countries which have signed the provision granting NGOs and individuals to file their cases at AfCHPR appear not entirely amused.
"They have not sufficiently encouraged their people to bring human rights cases before the Court or other countries to the same", he said.
Tanzania, the host country for the Court, in 2019 joined Rwanda, Benin and Cote d'Ivoire in ditching the controversial clause.
Only eight countries - out of 55 AU member states - have signed the contentious Declaration, signalling its unpopularity among the African leaders.
They are Burkina Faso, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea Bissau, Malawi, Mali, Niger and Tunisia.
Chief Obegolu, a barrister from Nigeria, said the shunned provision of the African Court was an indicator of weak human rights mechanisms in Africa.
As the AU countries were challenged on the drawback, in Zanzibar the Ecowas Community Court announced it would grant access to individuals to file cases before it.
The judicial organ for the West African states was initially strictly an interstate Court without individual's direct access to it.
However, recently a Supplementary Protocol was adopted which amended the initial Protocol, expanding its initial mandate into four distinct mandates.
The amended protocol granted the Court’s jurisdiction to determine cases of violation of human rights that occur in any Member State and gave individuals direct access to the Court in respect of the same.
This was revealed by the President of the Ecowas Community Court Lady Justice Dupe Atoki when she was speaking at a continental judicial dialogue in the Isles.
The African Court President Lady Justice Imani Daud Aboud did not directly speak on the issue but was recently quoted saying she was reaching out to the Tanzania authorities on the matter.
But as a regional court, our role is to harmonise and unify the domestic application of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights", she pointed out.
The President of the East African Court of Justice (EACJ) Justice Nestor Kayobera said although EACJ does not have "explicit" human rights jurisdiction, it has built jurisprudence on the protection of rights of individuals.
These are well articulated in the EAC in Articles 6 and 7 of the EAC Treaty which include protection of human rights and freedoms.
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