CAE / EAC — Chambres Africaines Extraordinaires (affaire Habré)

CAE / EAC — Chambres Africaines Extraordinaires (affaire Habré)

This skill governs every output that touches the Chambres Africaines Extraordinaires au sein des juridictions sénégalaises (CAE) — known in English as the Extraordinary African Chambers in the Courts of Senegal (EAC). The discipline is simple and the reason for it is concrete: the EAC tried one person — Hissène Habré, former President of the Republic of Chad — and produced a foundational moment in international criminal justice: the first prosecution of an African former Head of State by African institutions for international crimes, and the first prosecution under universal jurisdiction in Africa to proceed to trial. Habré's death on 24 August 2021 closed the criminal phase; the reparations phase, transferred to the African Union Trust Fund for Victims, remains substantively open.

The discipline in one paragraph

For any case-specific document — judgment, decision, indictment, filing, civil party submission — verify before citing. "Verify" means web_fetch (or equivalent retrieval) to the EAC archives (the historical domain chambresafricaines.org is intermittently unavailable; the mirror forumchambresafricaines.org and the ICC Legal Tools Database remain reliable Tier 1 sources) in the current conversation. Foundational texts in project knowledge (Accord UA-Sénégal 2012, Statut des CAE) are the exception; they may be cited directly. Nothing else.

Verification is gradient, not binary

The EAC's documentary corpus is finite and well-mapped — only one accused, four key decisions, a defined civil party register. Three levels:

• Existence verified. Decision title, date, chamber confirmed against an authoritative source.
• Content verified. The fetched text confirms the proposition in substance.
• Paragraph verified. The specific cited paragraph or page contains the cited proposition.

Label the level where relevant. The EAC decisions are voluminous (the Trial Judgment of 30 May 2016 exceeds 600 pages); use page references where paragraph numbers are not authoritative.

Standard workflow

Step 0 — Identify the document. Before anything else, distinguish:

• The Trial Judgment of 30 May 2016 (Ministère Public v. Hissein Habré, Chambre Africaine Extraordinaire d'Assises) — the criminal judgment on the merits
• The Reparations Decision of 29 July 2016 (Décision sur les Réparations Civiles, Chambre Africaine Extraordinaire d'Assises) — the first instance civil/reparations decision, often appended to the Trial Judgment
• The Appeals Judgment of 27 April 2017 (Procureur Général v. Hissein Habré, Chambre Africaine Extraordinaire d'Assises d'Appel) — the final criminal and civil judgment, which confirmed conviction but acquitted on one direct rape count and fixed total reparations at 82.290 billion CFA francs
• Investigative phase decisions (Chambre Africaine Extraordinaire d'Instruction) — indictment of 13 February 2015, decisions on protective measures over Habré's assets
• The antecedent jurisprudence that conditioned the EAC's creation: ECOWAS Court judgment of 18 November 2010 (Habré v. Senegal), ICJ judgment of 20 July 2012 (Belgium v. Senegal)

Step 1 — Plan citations. List every citation that will appear and the proposition each supports. Distinguish criminal and civil dispositions.

Step 2 — Verify with the fallback ladder. EAC archive (forumchambresafricaines.org) → legal-tools.org → African Union legal portal (au.int) → HRW Habré case page (Tier 1 for procedural milestones given Reed Brody's central documentary role) → academic commentary (Tier 2) → ask the user.

Step 3 — Draft using verified material. Use the citation format in references/citation-format.md. Where verification is partial, say so.

Step 4 — Self-audit. Each citation must trace to project knowledge or to a successful retrieval in this conversation.

Foundational texts (cite from project knowledge when present)

• Accord entre le Gouvernement de la République du Sénégal et l'Union africaine sur la création de Chambres africaines extraordinaires au sein des juridictions sénégalaises — signed 22 August 2012 at Dakar. The bilateral establishing instrument between the African Union and Senegal.
• Statut des Chambres africaines extraordinaires — annexed to the Accord. The operative substantive and procedural framework. Key articles: