Africa

Most of the Justice Initiative’s work is organized by thematic (as opposed to geographic) area. But because Africa is the nexus of so much of the organization’s work, and because other foundations in the Open Society network are so active there, the Justice Initiative operates a cross-cutting program focused on Africa.

The Open Society Justice Initiative supports institutions and norms in Africa that provide legal protections for people and advance human rights. The Justice Initiative also advocates for reforms that ensure more effective human rights protection and the application of existing human rights laws and norms.

Advocacy priorities include aiding police reform and increasing accountability for national law enforcement and criminal justice systems; promoting the adoption of freedom of information laws in leading African countries; helping develop effective protection of citizenship rights in Africa; increasing the effectiveness and participation of African states in international justice; and working to reform the African regional human rights system, including the establishment of the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights.

The Justice Initiative’s work in Africa is shaped by conditions in the region. Political processes and government functions remain largely personalized and arbitrary in most countries, while institutional foundations are quite weak. As a result, abuse of state power continues to go largely unchecked.

Official secrecy and opaque government practices are major obstacles to accountable governance in Africa. In some countries, mechanisms of law enforcement and accountability are completely dysfunctional. State failure on this scale creates room for militias and non-state actors to take over many of the roles of the state, creating a context that is ripe for civil conflict and citizenship-based discrimination. International justice mechanisms are often required to address these problems.

The primary tools employed by the Africa program are litigation, institution- and coalition-building, and public advocacy. The program supports national and regional actors who can work effectively to improve justice outcomes in Africa.

The Justice Initiative also plays a leading role in helping reform the institutions of the African regional human rights system, including the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights and the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights.

The following are several highlights of the Africa Program’s recent work:

Charles Taylor Rendition

International justice in Africa took a major step forward in 2006 when the former president of Liberia and accused war criminal Charles Taylor was handed over by Nigeria, where he had been granted asylum, to Liberia and then to the Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL). The end of Taylor’s impunity was the direct result of advocacy by victims and human rights workers in West Africa—advocacy that was largely coordinated by the Justice Initiative.

For years, Taylor lived in a seaside villa in Nigeria, despite protests by the Justice Initiative and others that his asylum violated Nigerian law. The Justice Initiative helped bring a lawsuit in Nigeria against Taylor, on behalf of two victims whose arms were hacked off by Taylor-backed militants in Sierra Leone. The case helped crystallize opposition to Taylor’s asylum and the Nigerian court sided with the victims, ruling they had standing to challenge Taylor’s asylum. This decision marked the beginning of the end of Taylor’s freedom. He now faces 11 charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The Darfur Consortium

To help end the genocide in Darfur and bring those responsible to justice, the Justice Initiative in 2004 helped organize an Extraordinary Session of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR) focused on Darfur, which resulted in the creation of the Darfur Consortium. Currently co-chaired by the Justice Initiative, the Darfur Consortium enables over 100 African civil society groups to provide their perspective on the crisis and to present a unified front calling for effective protection for the people of Darfur and international accountability for the crimes committed there. http://www.darfurconsortium.org

Coalition for the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights

The Coalition for the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights was established in 2003, in part through the efforts of the Open Society Justice Initiative and INTERIGHTS. By 2006, the coalition comprised over 500 NGOs and independent national human rights institutions within and outside Africa. The coalition advocates for full ratification of the protocol establishing the African Court by all 53 African Union member states. The coalition also assists the court in creating standards for selecting judges and works to ensure that the court is transparent and fully accessible to civil society organizations. http://www.africancourtcoalition.org

Reform of Legal Aid Delivery and Pre-Trial Detention in Nigeria

In 2005, the Open Society Justice Initiative, in collaboration with Nigeria’s Legal Aid Council and the Nigeria police force, launched a multifaceted project to reform pretrial detention and legal aid service delivery in Nigeria. The project addresses deep-rooted problems in Nigeria’s criminal justice system through better information management and improved communication and coordination between the criminal justice agencies made possible by CRIMSYS, a software program developed by the Justice Initiative. The project also fosters effective legal representation for arrested suspects and detained defendants through a “Duty Solicitor Scheme” that places lawyers on 24-hour call at designated police stations to provide legal assistance to suspects. These efforts are complemented by advocacy to improve Nigeria’s legal aid law.

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