Chief Justice Lucy Asuagbor elected alongside ten other Africans in Banjul. The candidate from Cameroon was elected on Thursday, July 23, at the end of a meeting of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR) that held in Banjul, The Gambia.
This election not only crowns Chief Justice Asuagbor’s rich 30-year career in magistracy but also marks the recognition of Cameroon’s recent efforts to meet up with international standards in the domain of human rights promotion and protection.
Chief Justice Asuagbor’s candidature was proposed by the Head of State, H.E. Paul Biya, as required by the ACHPR’s Charter. The Minister of External Relations, Henri Eyebe Ayissi, officially announced her candidature in a dinner that he organised at the Mont Febe Hotel Yaounde on April 9, 2010 in the presence of some members of government and the diplomatic corps.
Chief Justice Asuagbor’s six-year mandate will be dedicated to carrying out ACHPR’s mission which involves ensuring the promotion and protection of Human and Peoples’ Rights throughout the African continent. She is a person of high morality and integrity whose professional itinerary is enviable. She became a member of the Supreme Council of Magistracy in 2004 while serving as the President of the Court of Appeal of the South West Region, in Buea, since 2002. Before 2002, she had served in courts in Bafoussam, Bamenda, Bertoua and Douala.
Chief Justice Asuagbor was born on 16 September 1951 in Ntenako, Manyu Division. She obtained a Bachelor’s Degree in Law (LL.B) from the University of Lagos in 1977; a Diploma in Magistracy from the National School of Administration and Magistracy (ENAM) in 1979; and a Master’s Degree (LL.M) in International Maritime Law from the International Maritime Law Institute, Malta, in 1992.
Certainly, her rich professional experience and personal commitment to the values of justice will be strengths to the ACHPR that was established by the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, which came into force on October 21, 1986. The African Commission on Human and People’s Rights is an organ of the African Union.