By FAUSTINE KAPAMA-Judiciary, Dar es Salaam
The East African Court of Justice (EACJ), in collaboration with the Institute of Judicial Administration Lushoto (IJA), today dated February 27, 2025 conducted a training of judicial officers of Tanzania on good governance and rule of law in the East African Community.
The training held at Johari Rotana Hotel in Ilala District in the Commercial City of Dar-es-Salaam was opened by the Deputy Registrar of the EACJ, Hon. Christine Mutimura, on behalf of the Judge President of the East African Court of Justice, His Lordship Nestor Kayobera.
Several Judges of the High Court of Tanzania, Deputy Registrars and Magistrates in Charge of Resident and District Courts in the city attended the training, which sought to create awareness on number of legal issues within the East African Region.
Some topics were presented during the session, notably understanding the community and its courts and understanding the nexus between the East African Court of Justice and National Courts.
On the topic involving understanding the community and its courts, the participants discussed extensively the East African Court of Justice as a Regional Court: Structure, Jurisdiction and the Role in Settlement of Dispute in the Community.
After the presentation of the topic on understanding the nexus between the East African Court of Justice and national courts, Judges and Magistrates discussed several issues on preliminary rulings jurisdiction and practical exercise om preliminary ruling reference.
Speaking during the opening session, the Court's Deputy Registrar told the participants that such training is the second of its kind, as they had another one that involved Advocates from Tanzania in respect to the good governance and rule of law in East Africa.
Hon. Mutimura pointed out
that such training is an opportunity to understand exactly how courts come out
together to ensure that there is good governance and rule of law observed in
the East African Community.
“We value the cooperation
and good relations we have with the Judiciary of Tanzania; we have a very long-standing
cooperation as a court and we look forward to contribute to better functioning
of our courts,” she said.
As the court, the Deputy
Registrar said, they were very pleased that the Judiciary of Tanzania has been
forthcoming in ensuring judges and judicial officers of Tanzania have a better
understanding of the mandate, constitution and jurisprudence of the East
African Court of Justice.
Hon. Mutimura explained
further that the EACJ is the judicial arm of the EAC located in Arusha and
Tanzania is a member of the Community and the judicial cooperation between the EACJ
and national Judiciary of Tanzania are very key in maintaining good governance
and the rule of law in the East Africa.
“Some of you might wonder
what is the connection between the national judiciary and regional judiciary.
Our Judiciary works together as the regional court and the judiciary in the
national courts. However, we both contribute to the jurisprudence of our
respective courts and also contribute to the rule of law and good governance in
our communities,’ she said.
The Deputy Registrar
further pointed out that the Treaty of the East African Community provides for
principles of the community and every partner state is supposed to adhere to
those principles and where there is none adherences that is where courts come
in.
“As a court we thought it
is important that we have judicial cooperation between your courts and our
courts because this is vital to also ensuring that we adhere to the principles of
the EAC…
“National judiciaries have
key role to play because we believe you also handle matters that concern integration,
you need to collaborate with the EACJ to ensure that we are able to dispose of these
matters in the right way and in accordance with the Treaty but also national
laws,” she said.
The Deputy Registrar thanked
the Centre for Public Interest Law, an organization to the EACJ for purposes of
training judicial officers across East Africa and advocate on the regional
court, for ensuring that the training is taking place in other East Africa
partner states.
Speaking during the opening
session, the Head of ALP East Africa, Mr Gimara Francis told the participants
that the request for that training came from the Principal of IJA and Tanzania
Court of Appeal Justice, Hon. Dr. Paul Kihwelo following evaluation of two
other programmes that have been conducted in Tanzania.
“There was an overwhelming
request that we continuously do it for other judges and judicial officers who
have not participated in the training and he requested that we prepare for this
and when we contacted the EACJ they said it is important that we have a training
for 20 judicial officers,” he said.
Mr Francis explained that
the Centre for Public Interest Law is set up to support judiciaries across Africa
to promote good governance and rule of law and part of their understanding over
their mandate is to enable understanding of regional courts whose jurisdiction has
been agreed to by partner states.
“We are very interested in delivering a training around the mandate of the East African Court of Justice. Very many of you understand this, but we want a conversation on how much can we deal with matters which have an EACJ perspective,” he said.
The Head of ALP East Africa, Mr Gimara Francis giving some welcoming remarks before kicking of the training in question.
Judicial Traing Coordinator from the Institute of Judicial Administration, Hon. Patrick Lipiki presenting introductions about the training.
Another section of participants to the training (above and two pictures below) following proceedings of the opening session.
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