Catherine Dupe Atoki of Nigeria has been elected chairperson of African Commission on Human and People’s Rights (ACHPR), replacing the outgoing Madam Reine Alapini-Gansou of Togo.
Atoki was elected on Friday at the 50th Ordinary Session of the ACHPR in the Gambia capital, Banjul.
Commissioner Atoki, the special rapporteur of ACHPR on prevention of torture in Africa, will oversee the affairs of ACHPR for the coming two years.
She will be assisted by Vice chair and Rwandan Kayitesi Zainabo Sylvie, the special rapporteur of ACHPR for refugees, internally-displaced person and migrants, who will also serve for two years.
In her address, Commissioner Gansou paid tribute to her colleagues for the time well spent together, commending them for their collaboration.
She said that during her term in office, the commission focused on capacity building and cooperation with the other organs both in Africa and at the global level.
She said the most pressing problems of the commission were the special cases of nationality, sexual orientation and corruption.
She pointed out that apart from the traditional human rights problems, the ACHPR , over the last two years, had gone though a highly critical period with serious budgetary problems.
“Our budget was cut for no apparent reason at the time. And even the ACHPR partners also decided to stop rendering technical and financial assistance to us,”she lamented.
She added that the cuts affected the work of the commission to implement its programmes, adding that after 25 years of existence, the ACHPR remained the least resourced organ on the African continent as far as budgetary allocation is concerned.
However, she noted that at the institutional level, the Commission had witnessed better treatment by similar organs of the African Union (AU).
Courtesy PANA