News
2001

ICC dispute resolution in Africa

The African continent is becoming an increasingly fertile ground for arbitration, following recent national and international initiatives. A major event was the signature in October 1993 of the Treaty on the Harmonisation of Business Law in Africa (OHBLA Treaty). This led to the creation of the Common Court of Justice and Arbitration, a supra-national body endowed with the powers of a traditional arbitration institution. Subsequently, a Uniform Arbitration Act was passed, which is automatically implemented into the national law of any state that is party to the OHBLA Treaty. These states currently number 16 (Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, the Comoros, Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Ivory Coast, Mali, Niger, Senegal and Togo).

A number of other African states introduced new statutes on arbitration during the 1990s. They include Algeria and Tunisia in 1993, Kenya in 1995, Zimbabwe in 1996, Egypt in 1997 and Madagascar in 1998. Uganda followed suit in 2000. In several cases the reforms were inspired by UNCITRAL's 1985 Model Law on International Commercial Arbitration.

The number of African states that are parties to the United Nations Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards has been steadily increasing and now stands at 27 (Algeria, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Djibouti, Egypt, Ghana, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Lesotho, Madagascar, Mali, Mauritania, Mauritius, Morocco, Mozambique, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania, Tunisia, Uganda and Zimbabwe).

It is against this changing background that the IBA Section on Business Law's recent regional conference took place, attracting over 280 delegates from 30 countries. The conference covered public and private legal issues and practical questions such as case management and information technology.

Denis Bensaude, Counsel at the ICC International Court of Arbitration, presented the dispute resolution services offered by ICC. Arbitration is the foremost of these, but other methods are also available, such as expertise, documentary credit dispute resolution (DOCDEX) and the impending ADR, which will take the place of conciliation.

In 2000, 89 or 6.4% of the parties in newly registered ICC cases were of African origin. In 17 cases the parties had chosen an African law to govern their contract and in two cases provided for the place of arbitration to be in Africa. 14 arbitrators of African origin were appointed during the year (2 as sole arbitrators, 7 as coarbitrators and 5 as chairs of an arbitral tribunal). ICC's wish is to offer Africa, like all other regions, the benefit of its worldwide perspective and multi-national resources in order to resolve international commercial disputes independently of national judicial procedures and in ways befitting the international business community.