The Law Faculty of the University of Cape Town expresses its dismay and outrage at the recent decision of the summit of heads of state of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) to suspend the SADC Tribunal and replace it with a body which cannot receive complaints from individuals. By this measure, SADC has blocked a potentially effective mechanism for the protection of human rights, because it has removed the last opportunity which individuals in the region had to protect themselves against abuse by their own governments. It has also limited the possibility of linking sub-regional economic integration, democracy, the rule of law and human rights in a judicial context. This decision rejects the global movement towards increased accountability for governments, ignores the advice of a review panel which SADC itself commissioned, undermines the value system of the SADC treaty, and shows a disgraceful contempt towards the citizens of the SADC region.

In the treaty which established the SADC, the governments of the SADC states declared themselves determined