Continental rights body asks government to ratify protocols

In a plea for the government to protect its citizens against abuse, the chairwoman of the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights, Salamata Sawadogo, has urged the authorities of the Republic of Congo to set up state institutions to guarantee the protection of its people from abuse. "Let these institutions start functioning quickly," she said. The government, she said, needed to implement conventions to which it was a signatory. She said her visit to Congo was intended to draw the attention of the government to three "important subregional conventions" on the protection of human rights that had not yet been ratified by the country. Sawadogo was speaking at a news conference on Saturday in the Congolese capital, Brazzaville, where she had just ended a working visit with national authorities to make her case. The African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights has asked the government to "very quickly" ratify a protocol of the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights, that provides for the creation of an African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights. The government has also not yet ratified the protocols on the rights of women and children. These legal instruments permit individuals and civil-society bodies to bring before the commission complaints of human rights violations against the state. The Congo's last report to the commission on the state of human rights was in 2001. "We have been waiting for the country's report since last year," she said. Although created in March, the court is yet to begin operations. The commission, on the other hand, has been in operation since 1987, a year after its creation. The commission, whose headquarters is in The Gambian capital, Banjul, examines reports of national human rights bodies, but has limited powers and cannot punish states that violate these rights. [On the Net: African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights site: www.achpr.org] Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights on the Establishment of an African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights: www.africa-union.org]