![handle is hein.journals/tranhurrv2 and id is 1 raw text is:
REINFORCING THE IDENTITY OF THE AFRICAN CHILDREN'S RIGHTS
COMMITTEE: A CASE FOR LIMITING THE LUST FOR JUDICIAL POWERS IN
AFRICAN QUASI-JUDICIAL HUMAN RIGHTS MECHANISMS*
SOLOMON T EBOBRAH*
Established as a quasi-judicial treaty supervisory body rather than an international court, the African
Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child struggles for relevance in the African human
rights system where most non-state stakeholders arguably prefer organs with clear judicial powers. Thus,
similar to the experiences of its older counterparts, the Committee appears to be under subtle pressure to
substitute or at least reinforce its quasi-judicial character with more judicial powers and action. In essence,
the Committee suffers from the uncertainty that prevails in international law regarding the definition of the
term quasi-judicial; and the unclear distinction between quasi-judicial bodies and international courts. This
paper seeks to contribute to addressing that uncertainty within international human rights law by showing
that an important defining distinction between quasi-judicial bodies and international courts is the purpose
for their respective establishment. Accordingly, the paper simultaneously highlights the need to retain the
Committee in its original character and challenges the view that quasi-judicial bodies are established only
because states desire to water-down treaty obligations by creating supervisory bodies that lack power to
challenge violative state action. This paper also argues that quasi-judicial bodies have their own intrinsic
value in promoting the implementation of international human rights standards so that forcing quasi-judicial
bodies to act like international courts defeats the purpose and thus, the value of quasi-judicial bodies.
1. IN ORDER TO ENHANCE its relevance and acceptance as a mechanism for human rights
protection, the African Committee on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (African Child Rights
Committee or Committee) appears to be labouring under subtle pressure to alter its identity. The
Committee appears to be caught between acting like the quasi-judicial body (QJB) that it is and
acting like an international court (IC) that it is not. Twenty five years after it was established under
the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child' (African Children Charter), the
Committee remains largely unknown, overshadowed by the more illustrious judicial-acting organs
Z* This research is funded by the Danish National Research Foundation Grant no. DNRF105 and conducted under the
auspices of iCourts, the Danish National Research Foundation's Centre of Excellence for International Courts.
* Professor of Law, Niger Delta University, Wilberforce Island, Nigeria; Researcher, iCourts, Centre of Excellence
for International Courts, University of Copenhagen, and Extra-ordinary Lecturer, Centre for Human Rights, University
of Pretoria. LLB (RSUST), LLM, LLD (Pretoria). EMAIL address: sebobrah@yahoo.co.uk.
'. African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, OAU Doc. CAB/LEG/24.9 (1990) which entered into force
on 29 Nov 1999[African Children's Charter].](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/tranhurrv2&div=1&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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