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The Agreement on the Establishment of the Extraordinary African Chambers within the Senegalese Judicial System Between the Government of the Republic Of Senegal and the African Union and the Statute of the Chambers

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Roland Adjovi
Roland Adjovi*
Affiliation:
Member of the ILM Editorial Advisory Committee, Editorial Assistant of the African Yearbook of International Law. Professor at The College of Global Studies, Arcadia University. Email: adjovir@arcadia.edu.
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Extract

On August 22, 2012, the Republic of Senegal and the African Union (AU) signed an agreement to create a tribunal within the Senegalese judicial system to prosecute the perpetrators of international law violations in Chad between 1982 and 1990. To be called the Extraordinary African Chambers (Chambers), the tribunal is the result of years of political and judicial bargaining around Hissein Habré, the former President of Chad. The Chambers were inaugurated in February 2013, following the agreement upon a Statute of the Chambers in January 2013. On July 2, 2013, Hissein Habré was charged with crimes against humanity, torture, and war crimes, and placed in pre-trial detention. To date, Habré is the only indictee, but the Prosecutor reportedly intends to seek the indictment of five officials of Habré’s administration suspected of having committed international crimes.

Type
International Legal Documents
Information
International Legal Materials , Volume 52 , Issue 4 , August 2013 , pp. 1020 - 1036
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of International Law 2013

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References

* Translation by Aatsa Attogho (), Dec. 2012; Revised by Edwin Ocloo-Sewor (), Jan. 2013.

† Translation by Reed Brody, Mark de Barros, and Pauline Hilmy, Human Rights Watch. This translated version is also available on the Human Rights Watch Web site (visited November 6, 2013), http://www.hrw.org/news/2013/09/02/statute-extraordinaryafrican-chambers.

1 This name has been variously spelt. The author chose the spelling from official documents presented by Chad at the United Nations while Habré was in power. See, e.g., U.N. President of the S.C., Letter dated Mar. 17, 1983 from the Permanent Representative of Chad to the President of the S.C., U.N. Doc. S/15644 (Mar. 17, 1983); U.N. President of the S.C., Letter dated June 24, 1983 from the Permanent Representative of Chad to the President of the S.C., U.N. Doc. S/15843 (June 24, 1983); U.N. President of the S.C., Letter dated Aug. 4, 1983 from the Permanent Representative of Chad to the President of the S.C., U.N. Doc. S/15907 (Aug. 4, 1983).

2 Human Rights Watch, Q&A: The Case of Hissène Habré before the Extraordinary African Chambers in Senegal (Sept. 26, 2013)Google Scholar, http://www.hrw.org/news/2012/09/11/qa-casehiss-ne-habr-extraordinary-african-chambers-senegal.

3 On the chronology, see Commission of Inquiry into the Crimes and Misappropriations Committed by Ex-President Habré, His Accomplices and/or Accessories Google Scholar, Chad: Report of the Commission of Inquiry into the Crimes and Misappropriations Committed by Ex-President Habré, His Accomplices and/or Accessories, reprinted in Transitional Justice: How Emerging Democracies Reckon with Former Regimes, Volume III: Laws, Rulings, and Reports 51, 51-79 (Neil, J. Kritz, ed., 1995)Google Scholar, available at http://www.usip.org/sites/default/files/file/resources/collections/commissions/Chad-Report.pdf [hereinafter Report of the Commission of Inquiry].

4 Robert, Buijtenhuijs, Hissein Habré: Seigneur de la guerre jusqu’au bout , 41 Politique Africaine 135 (1991)Google Scholar, available at http://www.politique-africaine.com/numeros/pdf/041135.pdf.

5 On the DDS and the crimes committed, see Report of the Commission of Inquiry, supra note 3.

6 Id.

7 Id. at 91-92.

8 There is a specific mention of the United States in the Report of the Commission of Inquiry. Id. at 88. France also supported Habré’s regime through a Military Cooperation Agreement signed in 1976 that was in force when Habré came to power. See Accord de Cooperation Militaire Technique, Fr.-Chad, Jun. 19, 1976, http://www.diplomatie.gouv.fr/traites/affichetraite.do?accord=TRA19760067.

9 See Buijtenhuijs, supra note 4.

10 See Steve, Czajkowski, Chad court sentences ex-dictator Habre to death in absentia, Jurist (Aug. 16, 2008)Google Scholar, http://jurist.org/paperchase/2008/08/chad-court-sentences-ex-dictatorhabre.php.

11 See generally, Introductory Note: In re Augusto Pinochet Ugarte in 119 I.L.R. 1 (Elihu, Lauterpacht, Greenwood, C.J. & Oppenheimer, A.G., eds., Aug. 2002)Google Scholar.

12 Ministère Public v. Hissène Habré, Cour d’appel [CA] [regional court of appeal] Dakar, ch. d’accusation, Chambre d’accusation, Arrêt No. 135 (Apr. 7, 2000) (Sen.).

13 Souleymane Guengueng v. Hissène Habré, Cour de Cassation [Cass.] [supreme court for judicial matters] crim., Arrêt No. 14 (Mar. 20, 2001) (Sen.).

14 Committee against Torture, Decisions of the Committee Against Torture under Art. 22 of the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, ¶¶ 9.6-9.12, U.N. Doc. CAT/C/36/D/181/2001 (May 19, 2006), available at http://www.unhchr.ch/tbs/doc.nsf/0/aafdd8e81a424894c125718c004490f6? Opendocument.

15 The application was based on the 1999 Act. Loi relative à la répression des violations graves de droit international humanitaire [Law on the repression of serious violations of international humanitarian law] of Mar. 2 1999 [Belgium], available at http://www.refworld.org/docid/3df89c944.html.

16 See Questions relating to the Obligation to Prosecute or Extradite (Belgium v. Senegal), Application Instituting Proceedings (Feb. 19, 2009), available at http://www.icj-cij.org/docket/files/144/15054.pdf.

17 See Questions relating to the Obligation to Prosecute or Extradite (Belgium v. Senegal), Judgment, ¶128 (July 20, 2012), available at http://www.icj-cij.org/docket/files/144/17064.pdf (the first two quotations were adopted by a majority of fourteen votes to two; the last quotation was a unanimous order of the Court).

18 See African Union [AU], Decision on the Hissene Habre Case and the African Union, AU Doc. Assembly/AU/Dec.103 (VI) (Jan. 2006), http://www.au.int/en/sites/default/files/ASSEMBLY_EN_23_24_JANUARY_2006_AUC_%20SIXTH%20_ORDINARY_SESSION_DECISIONS_DECLARATIONS.pdf (establishing the Committee and requesting that its report be submitted in July 2006); Decision sur le Proces D’Hissene Habre et L’Union Africaine, AU Doc. Assembly/AU/Dec.127(VII) (July 2006), http://www.au.int/en/sites/default/files/ASSEMBLY_FR_01_JULY_03_JULY_2006_AUC_SEVENTH_ORDINARY_SESSION_DECISIONS_DECLARATIONS.pdf (“Mandat(ing) the Republic of Senegal to prosecute and ensure that Hissène Habré is tried, on behalf of Africa, by a competent Senegalese court with guarantees for fair trial.”). For additional decisions of the Assembly of the African Union related to Hissein Habré, see African Union, Decisions and Declarations of the Assembly, http://www.au.int/en/decisions/assembly (documents of note include: Assembly/AU/Dec.240 (XII) (2009); Assembly/AU/Dec.246 (XIII) (2009); Assembly/AU/Dec.272 (XIV) (2010); Assembly/AU/Dec.297 (XV) (2010); Assembly/AU/Dec.340 (XVI) (2011); Assembly/AU/Dec.371 (XVII) (2011); Assembly/AU/Dec.401 (XVIII) (2012)).

19 Loi No. 2008-23 du 25 juillet 2008 de portant insertion d’un article 664 bis dans le Code de Procédure pénale [Law 2008-23 of July 25 on the insertion of Article 664 bis of the Code of Criminal Procedure], Journal Officiel de la République du Senegal [J.O.], July 25, 2008 (Sen.), available at http://www.jo.gouv.sn/spip.php?article7102; Loi Constitutionnelle No. 2008-30 du 7 aouˆt 2008 de modifiant les articles 7, 63, 68, 71, et 82 de la Constitution [Law 2008-30 of August 7 amending Articles 7, 63, 68, 71, and 82 of the Constitution], [J.O.], Aug. 7, 2008 (Sen.), available at http://www.gouv.sn/Loi-Constitutionnelle-modifiant,707.html.

20 Hissein Habré v. Republic of Senegal, Case No. ECW/CCJ/APP/07/08, Judgment, ¶ 61 (Econ. Community of W. Afr. States [ECOWAS] Community Ct. of Justice Nov. 10, 2010), available at http://www.hrw.org/fr/news/2010/11/18/arr-t-cedeaoecowas-ruling-hissein-habr-c-r-publique-du-s-ngal (“that the mandate given him by the African Union gives it more of a mission design and suggestion from all modalities to continue to try and strictly within the framework of a special procedure ad hoc nature of international law as practiced in International by all civilized nations.”).

21 See Michelot Yogogombaye v. Republic of Senegal, App. No. 001/2008, Judgment (Afr. Ct. on Human and Peoples’ Rights Dec. 14, 2009), available at http://www.african-court.org/en/images/documents/Press_Docs/JUDGMENT%20in%20MICHELOT%20YOGOGOMBAYE%20VS%20REPUBLIC%20OF%20SENEGAL.pdf.

22 Agreement on the Establishment of the Extraordinary African Chambers Within the Senegalese Judicial System Between the Government of the Republic of Senegal and the African Union art. 1(1), Aug. 22, 2012, 52 I.L.M. 1024 (2013) [hereinafter Agreement].

23 Id. at art. 1; Statute of the Extraordinary African Chambers within the Courts of Senegal Created to Prosecute International Crimes Committed in Chad between 7 June 1982 and 1 December 1998 art 3, Jan. 30, 2013, 52 I.L.M. 1028 (2013) [hereinafter Statute].

24 Statute, supra note 23, art 4.

25 Id. at art. 8.

26 Id. at art. 6(g).

27 Id. at art. 7(1)(b).

28 Id. at art. 16; Agreement, supra note 22, art. 1(4).

29 Statute, supra note 23, arts. 14, 27, 28.

30 Id. at arts. 11(3)-(4).

31 Agreement, supra note 22, art. 7.

32 Id. at art. 6.

33 Id. at art. 7.

34 Id. at art. 3(1); Statute, supra note 23, art. 32.

35 According to Human Rights Watch, the contributions breakdown is as follows: Chad (2 billion CFA francs or US$ 3,743,000); the European Union (€2 million); the Netherlands (€1 million); the African Union (US$1 million); the United States (US$1 million); Belgium (€500,000); Germany (€500,000); France (€300,000); and Luxembourg (€100,000). See Q&A, supra note 2.

36 Chambres Africaines Extraordinaires [Extraordinary African Chambers], http://www.chambresafricaines.org Google Scholar (last visited Nov. 1, 2013).