The Southern Africa Litigation Centre (SALC) participated at the African Commission’s 51st ordinary session in Banjul, the Gambia from 13 to 21 April 2012. During the NGO Forum session SALC was elected as the SADC Focal Point mandated to coordinate the activities of southern Africa NGOs and human rights defenders and facilitate their effective engagement with the African Commission and its special mechanisms. SALC was also nominated to be in the litigation NGOs working group on communications whose task is to work with the African Commission’s working group to improve the latter’s communications procedure.
SALC organised jointly with the Coalition for an effective African Court, a meeting which focused on examining the relationship between the African Commission and the Court and implications of the proposed protocol increasing the Court’s jurisdiction to include international crimes. During the public session SALC submitted a statement on Malawi and supported a joint statement on conditions of pre-trial detention.
