The Controversial Role of Litigation in the Struggle to Revive Individual Access to the Tribunal of the Southern African Development Community

Abstract

The article examines four categories of litigation that were undertaken in the wake of the suspension of the sadc Tribunal. The first category of proceedings concerned a claim and request for an advisory opinion under the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (African Charter); the second related to arbitration proceedings based on the sadc Protocol on Finance and Investment (fip); the third focussed on proceedings regarding the potential unconstitutionality of a government’s participation in the suspension of the sadc Tribunal; while the fourth concerned conflicts between the sadc and employees before the Botswana High Court. In analysing these proceedings, the article assesses whether litigation thus far undertaken is likely to increase pressure on sadc member states to reinstate some form of individual complaints procedure before the sadc Tribunal.