106
Kabumba/Application of African Union (human rights) law in Uganda
Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in the African Charter,101 (Ecosoc
Guidelines) in determining a matter implicating the right to health in
Uganda.102
The foregoing enumeration and analysis suggests that AU law has
made some inroads into the jurisprudence of Uganda courts. As Table
1 below shows, different kinds of AU law have had different fortunes in
this regard, with the African Charter and the African Children’s Charter
appearing to have had the most impact. However, the references to the
African Children’s Charter have been mainly pro forma, formulaic and
in passing – being in the nature of a standard recitation of the Charter,
part of a statement of the ‘best interests’ principle, as a preamble to the
determination of family causes.
Table 1: Frequency of citation of AU law by Ugandan courts
Institution, case law or instrument
Number of cases in
which cited
AU
0
African Charter
12
AU Convention on Preventing and Combatting Corruption 1
African Children’s Charter
8
Maputo Protocol
3
Democracy Charter
2
African Commission jurisprudence
3
FoE Declaration
1
Ecosoc Guidelines
1
African Children’s Rights Committee jurisprudence
0
African Court jurisprudence
0
Total references
31
In the next part, we assess the extent to which the laws of other regional
integration efforts have been relied on in Ugandan cases, as a means of
placing into context the experience of AU law in this respect.
4
4.1
COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVES
The European Union
EU law has been referred to on a number of occasions, especially in the
context of commercial litigation. Aside from a number of passing
101
102
Adopted on 24 October 2011.
At paras 19-32.