Mugabe refuses to ratify African court protocol

PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe's refusal to ratify the protocol on the African Court on Human and People's Rights is frustrating efforts to widen the monitoring of governments' observance of human rights, the court's officials have said.

During a media tour of the court, officials at the African Court said Mugabe, who is the African Union (AU) chair, should be leading by example.

The court, based in Arusha, Tanzania, was established through a protocol of the AU in Burkina Faso in 1998 and only came into force in 2004.

So far 28 out of 54 AU member states have ratified the protocol, paving the way for the court's jurisdiction in civil matters, but Mugabe has reportedly refused to budge despite years of attempts to get him to sign.

Government sources say Mugabe is lobbying African countries to pull out of the ICC for its alleged bias against them.

"Armed with new powers as both AU and Sadc chairperson, Mugabe is pushing for a resolution to pull out of the ICC to top the agenda for the AU summit scheduled for June in South Africa," said a source.

Mugabe could be supported by long-serving presidents such as Uganda's Yoweri Museveni and Equatorial Guinea's Teodoro Obiang Nguema.