Pan Africa Lawyers’ Union (PALU) has called for the creation of conditions that will improve the quality of life of Africans.
It urged African lawyers’ associations and societies to renew their commitment to PALU as an ideal vehicle for collating their aspirations and ambitions towards promoting the rule of law and good governance on the continent.
PALU President Chief Emeka Obegolu made the call at the opening of the 2019 PALU conference and General Assembly held in Lome, Togo capital.
Obegolu said PALU seeks to use the legal profession to add value to the African society.
His words: “Lawyers associations, be they Bar Associations or Law Societies, and whether they operate at sub-national, national, regional, continental or global platforms, exist to do one, a combination or all of the following: regulation of the profession, representation of the profession to the public, governments, intergovernmental organizations and the world at large public interest advocacy.
“Regulation of the profession requires us to invest in legal education: pre-admission and post-admission; to formulate codes of ethics and other regulatory instruments that are in tandem with current developments in our societies and economies; to constantly build the capacity of our members, through conferences, seminars, publications, etc; and to establish modalities and mechanisms within the profession that can enforce these standards, and discipline the minority within the profession that violate these standards.
“Representation of the profession, our ‘trade union’ function, requires that we effectively represent the profession and its interests to government (both central and local or devolved government), to institutions of global and continental governance, and to the public at large.
“It also requires that we constantly source and acquire privileges and benefits for members.
“Our public interest mandate should be construed as broadly as possible to enable us to, collectively, contribute to development in our societies: encompassing political, economic, social and cultural development.
“This should include – although not be limited to – contributing to the fair administration of justice; the just rule of law; constitutionalism; democracy and good governance; the protection and promotion of human and peoples’ rights; law reform and access to justice, etc.”
According to Obegolu, PALU believes in having strong legal and judicial institutions, which are the ultimate guarantors for sustainable development, the rule of law, democracy, good governance, human and peoples’ rights, and for assertively combating impunity at the national, sub- regional, continental and global levels.
“We further believe in the necessity of proactively and innovatively working towards co-operation, collaboration and even complemen-tarities between these institutions at these various levels, on the African continent, as elsewhere in the world.
“For this reason, not only has PALU supported and actively engaged the various organs and institutions of global governance, but it has also actively participated in, and advocated for, a strong Pan-African and (sub) regional judicial and legal architecture,” Obegolu said.
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