Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Republic of Rwanda, Busingye Johnston, this Wednesday 14th March 2018, opened the second Extra-ordinary Session of the Specialised Technical Committee on Justice and Legal Affairs which will be attended by Ministers in charge of Justice from African countries.

This 2-day session convened by the African Union Commission aims at legally scrubbing the legal instruments establishing the African Continental Free Trade and Protocols on Trade, Services and Dispute Settlement.

Welcome remarks by Minister Busingye Johnston

On behalf of the Government of the Republic of Rwanda, I am pleased and honoured to officially welcome you all to Kigali.

I wish to thank the African Union Commission for convening this important meeting, and for convening it in Kigali. I hope that your stay, so far, is good. Your being here humbles us greatly. We are grateful for the honour and privilege of playing host to you. Because of your presence here we become better hosts. Thank you.

Our legal experts have done tremendous work over the last three days, which involved the legal scrubbing of the Agreement establishing the African Continental Free Trade Area, Protocols on Trade in Goods, Trade in Services and Rules and Procedures on Disputes Settlement. May I take this opportunity to thank and commend them for the expert effort and African unity spirit that characterized their meeting.

As Custodians of and advisors on the Law, the onus is now upon us to provide the legal fitness for purpose to the legal instruments before us and ensure that our respective Heads of State are comfortable in the knowledge that we have done our best. But above all, permit me to assume the liberty to say that we know that we are here today as part of a historical process of making our contribution towards fulfilling the dreams and aspirations of our founding fathers of having an integrated Africa.

The decision to form the African Continental Free Trade Area was adopted in January 2012 during the 18th Ordinary session of Heads of State and Government of the African Union. The plain meaning of this is that since 2012 we have agreed that we all desire to be an indispensable player in the world economy and one political and economic approach of having an integrated Africa in all spheres is the agreed way to go since 2012. The urgency should not be missed.

Legislation in many of our jurisdictions is largely, and understandably so far, protectionist. But it is now known that this hinders intra-Africa trade, innovation and competitiveness. The benefits that accrue from an integrated Africa include among others elimination of discriminatory and protectionist practices, increase in comparative advantage, diversification and economies of scale and, hence, reduced costs of production. Given what we now know there is every reason to think and act differently. As our countries’ legal advisors we are right at the nerve centre of this change.

The decisions we make today on the future of our Continent will have a bearing not only on us, but future generations as well. Let us stand up to be counted as having contributed to a better Africa by embracing a single African Market. As the late Mwalimu Julius Nyerere pointed out, without unity, there is no future for Africa.

Our job in these two days is to ensure that what our distinguished colleagues, the Ministers of Trade, endorsed is legally sound and good for our Heads of State to endorse. I trust we will do what it takes to do a good job of it and pave way for the next level to realize maximum outcomes.

With these few remarks, I declare the Second Extra-Ordinary Session of the Specialized Technical Committee on Justice and Legal Affairs (Ministerial Meeting) opened, and I wish all of us fruitful deliberations.

I thank you for your kind attention.