JUDGE ABOUD ELATED ON HER RE ELECTION ASS AFRICAN COURT PRESIDENT

BY GRACE MACHA IN ARUSHA

Lady Justice  Imani Daudi Aboud has been re-elected the President of the African Court on Human and People's Rights (AfCHPR).

She will serve for another term of two years with some of her dreams to take the legal facility to another level showing signs of success.

Most significant is securing the permanent seat of the Court which has for the past 15 years been operating in rented premises.

Only two weeks ago, she witnessed the launch of a Sh. 61 billion construction of the Court's headquarters on the outskirts of Arusha city.

This followed an offer of land measuring 24 hectares by the government of Tanzania to the judicial organ of the African Union (AU).

The host nation, Tanzania has already advanced Sh 9 billion for the project to be undertaken by a Chinese construction firm.

Re-election of Lady Justice Aboud was announced in Arusha early this week at the opening of the 69th ordinary session of the pan-African judicial organ.

At the same session, Justice Sacko Modibo from Mali was elected Vice President of the Court, according to a statement from the Court to the media.

Expressing her gratitude, Justice Imani thanked her colleagues for the unanimous re-election and the confidence they have shown in her leadership.

"I am overwhelmed by the confidence my colleagues have placed in me, and I am sincerely grateful to them", she said.

Lady Justice Aboud was first elected the  President of the Court in June 2021, taking over as the sixth president since the Court was operationalized in 2006.

She was the second Tanzanian national to land on that position after the late Judge Augustino Ramadhani who served in the position from 2014 to 2016.

After taking over the helm as President of the Court in 2021, she committed herself to ensure that the legal facility got its permanent headquarters in Arusha.

Justice Aboud, a former Judge of the High Court of Tanzania, was first elected as AfCHPR Judge in July 2018.

She holds Master of Laws (Malta) and Bachelor of Laws (University of Dar es Salaam).

She was re-elected for a second and final term of six years at the 34th African Union Heads in 2021.

She also pledged to reach out to the African countries (AU member states) which have not ratified the protocol that created the court in 1998.

Out of the 55 AU member states,  34 countries are reported to have ratified the protocol despite concerted efforts by the AU Commission and the past presidents of the Court to reach out dozens of the African leaders.