ABSTRACT
This chapter seeks to critically analyze the normative space within which African traditional courts operate in the context of the normative frameworks of international and regional human rights law that guarantee the right to equality and fair trial before courts and tribunals. The normative framework for the right to equality before the courts and tribunals and to a fair trial is crystallized in many international human rights law instruments. The key legal text on fair trial is Article 14 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Based on the characteristics of traditional courts enumerated earlier, it can be deduced that there are a number of clashes with the international human rights law, although this is a contentious issue. Some scholars believe it is an ambitious task for traditional courts to subscribe to the notion of international human rights given their peculiar practice.
