26 November 2013

Senior UN Official urges UN force to restrain ‘horrific’ situation in the Central African Republic

Citing mounting human rights abuses, sexual violence and other ‘horrors’, Deputy Secretary-General Jan Eliasson called on the international community for immediate action to halt the rapidly deteriorating situation in conflict-wracked Central African Republic (CAR). ‘It is critical for the international community and this Council to act now’, Eliasson told the UN Security Council, proposing that a UN peacekeeping mission eventually replace the current African-led International Support Mission in the CAR.

‘We face a profoundly important test of international solidarity and of our responsibility to prevent atrocities (…) The situation requires prompt and decisive action’ he said, also stressing that humanitarian needs are escalating, while funding is woefully short, with a 195 million dollar appeal less than half funded.

He noted that the African Union and the Economic Community of Central Africa States both agree that there is an urgent need for the international community to act, and that a UN peacekeeping operation with a robust mandate will be eventually required.

Source: United Nations | Secratary-General | Ban Ki-moon | Deputy Secretary-General: Statements | New York, 25 November 2013 - Deputy Secretary-General's Briefing to the Security Council on the Situation in the Central African Republic

30 July 2012

Judgment in the matter of Femi Falana v. The African Union

The African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights has ruled in Femi Falana v. African Union that the African Union cannot be sued before the Court on behalf of, or for obligations attributable to, its member states and that it is not subject to obligations arising from the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Establishment of an African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights.

Source: AfCHPR | Judgment in the matter of Femi Falana v. The African Union