Revista de Ciências Civis e Jurídicas

Abstrato

African Regional Economic Communities and Human Rights

Gilbert Hagabimana

The post-colonial period was characterized by the birth of several regional economic blocs in an effort to create a free trade area to meet the challenges left by the colonial ordeal. It is within this framework that the East African Community was created. With a view to ensuring the effective implementation of their objectives, these communities set up judicial bodies responsible for interpreting and applying the legal texts that created them. In the East African Community, the East African Court of Justice has been put in place to carry out this task. Although established to deal with commercial matters - given that the community had a commercial purpose - this judicial body of the East African Community shifted towards the promotion and protection of human rights, thus contributing to the development of this branch of law in the region.