The African Court was created pursuant to a protocol to the Banjul Charter adopted in 1998 in Burkina Faso by the Organization of African Unity (OAU), the predecessor of the AU. The protocol came into force on 25 January 2004, following ratification by more than 15 countries. The court's first judges were elected in 2006 and it issued its first judgment in 2009.[3]
The African Court's mandate is to complement and reinforce the functions of the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights, a quasi-judicial body that monitors implementation of the charter and recommends cases to the court.[4] It has jurisdiction over all cases and disputes submitted to it concerning the interpretation and application of the Banjul Charter, the protocol to the charter, and any other applicable human rights instrument. The court can issue advisory opinions on legal matters and adjudicate contentious cases.
The court is composed of eleven judges nominated by member states of the AU and elected by the latter's Assembly of Heads of State and Government. Judges serve six-year terms and may only be re-elected once. The president of the court resides and works full-time in Arusha, while the other ten judges work on a part-time basis. Registry, managerial, and administrative functions are executed by a registrar.
Thirty-four African countries have ratified the protocol establishing the African Court, of which only nine have made a special declaration allowing individuals and NGOs to submit cases directly to the court: Burkina Faso, Ghana, Malawi, Mali, Rwanda, Tanzania, Republic of Côte d'Ivoire, Tunisia, and the Gambia;[5] otherwise, cases must be submitted to the African Commission, which then determines whether to refer it to the court.
As of September 2021, the African Court has delivered 259 decisions, including 131 judgments and 128 orders, and has 217 pending cases.[6]
Members
Members of the African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights. Burgundy – fully recognize the competence of the court Pink – other states that have ratified the protocol
As of January 2019, nine state parties to the protocol have made a declaration recognizing the competence of the Court to receive cases from non-government organizations (NGOs) and individuals. The nine states are Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Mali, Malawi, Rwanda, Tanzania, the Gambia and Tunisia.[5] Altogether, 34 states have ratified the protocol: Algeria, Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Chad, Côte d'Ivoire, Comoros, Democratic Republic of Congo, Republic of the Congo, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Libya, Lesotho, Madagascar, Mali, Malawi, Mozambique, Mauritania, Mauritius, Nigeria, Niger, Rwanda, Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, South Africa, Senegal, Tanzania, Togo, Tunisia, Uganda, and Zambia.[7]
Côte d'Ivoire announced that it was withdrawing from the court in April 2020, after the tribunal ordered the government to suspend an arrest warrant for Guillaume Soro.[8]
Mission
The African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights was established to complement and reinforce the functions of the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights (the African Commission – often referred to as the Banjul Commission), which is a quasi-judicial body charged with monitoring the implementation of the Charter.
Mandate
The mission of the Court is to enhance the protective mandate of the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights by strengthening the human rights protection system in Africa and ensuring respect for and compliance with the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights, as well as other international human rights instruments, through judicial decisions.
Vision
The vision of the Court is an Africa with a viable human rights culture.
Core values
Judicial independence from any partisanship, bias, influence, whether it comes from States, NGOs, funding agencies, or individuals.
Fair and impartial application and interpretation of the provisions of the African Charter, the Protocol, the Rules, and other relevant international human rights instruments.
Transparent and ethical accountability in the operations of the Court.
Fundamental rights of every individual to enjoy basic civil, political, social, economic, and cultural rights are upheld.
Collaboration with relevant stakeholders in pursuance of the Court's objective of protecting human and peoples' rights.
Non-discrimination and equality in performance of the work of the Court.
Integrity of the Judges and staff working at the Court.
Provide equal access to all potential users of the Court.
Be responsive to the needs of those who approach the Court.
Strategic objectives
Exercise jurisdiction in all cases and disputes brought before it concerning the interpretation and application of the Charter, the protocol and any other relevant instrument relating to human rights ratified by the States concerned;
Collaborate with sub-regional and national judicial bodies to enhance the protection of human rights on the continent;
To enhance the participation of the African people in the work of the Court;
To enhance the capacity of the Registry of the Court to be able to fulfill its mandate; and
To enhance working relationship between the Court and the African Commission.
Judges are normally elected for six-year terms and can be re-elected once. The President and Vice-President are elected to two-year terms and can be re-elected once.
The Court had its First Ordinary Session from July 2–5, 2006, in Banjul, the Gambia.
Location
Tanzania is the Court's host state.[9] The Court's temporary premises are located in Arusha, Tanzania, at the Phase II of the Mwalimu Julius Nyerere Conservation Centre Complex along Dodoma Road. The plans for Tanzania to build permanent premises for the Court have experienced repeated delays, and the Court has stressed the necessity of purpose-built premises for it to properly carry out its work.[10]
Jurisdiction
The Court has jurisdiction to determine applications against state parties of the Court Protocol. To date, 34 states (listed above) have ratified the protocol.[11]
An application against these states may be made by the African Commission or African inter-governmental organisations.
Where a state has made a declaration accepting the right of individual application under Article 34(6) of the Court's Protocol, an individual or NGO with observer status before the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights may make an application. As it stands, 9 states have made the declaration: Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Malawi, Mali, Tanzania, Tunisia, and The Gambia.[12] Rwanda made a declaration in 2013 but withdrew it in 2016, and Tanzania gave notice that it was withdrawing its declaration (which will take effect a year later) in November 2019.[13]
Judgments
On December 15, 2009, the Court delivered its first judgment, finding an application against Senegal inadmissible.[14]
The court's first judgment on the merits of a case was issued on June 14, 2013, in a case involving Tanzania. It found Tanzania had violated its citizens' rights to freely participate in government directly or through representatives regardless of their party affiliation, and ordered Tanzania to take constitutional, legislative, and all other measures necessary to remedy these violations.[15][16]
On March 28, 2014, the court ruled against Burkina Faso, in a case brought by the family of Norbert Zongo, a newspaper editor who was murdered in 1998. The court found that Burkina Faso had failed to properly investigate the murder, and had failed in its obligations to protect journalists.[17][18]
On June 23, 2022, the court ruled that the Kenyan government must pay the evicted and displaced Okiek people 157,850,000 shillings for decades of material and moral damages, recognize their indigeneity and help get them official titles to their ancestral lands.[19]
On July 1, 2008, at the African Union Summit in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, Heads of State and Government signed a protocol[20] on the merger of the AfCHPR with the still non-existent African Court of Justice following a decision by member states at a June 2004 African Union Summit. As of 18 June 2020, only eight countries have ratified the protocol out of 15 needed for its entry into force.[21] The new court would be known as the African Court of Justice and Human Rights.
Norbert Zongo, also known under the pen name Henri Segbo or H.S., was a Burkinabé investigative journalist who managed the newspaper L'Indépendant in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. Under Zongo's supervision, L'Indépendant exposed extortion and impunity within the government of Burkina Faso President Blaise Compaoré. He was assassinated after his newspaper began investigating the murder of a driver who had worked for the brother of Compaoré.
International human rights law (IHRL) is the body of international law designed to promote human rights on social, regional, and domestic levels. As a form of international law, international human rights law is primarily made up of treaties, agreements between sovereign states intended to have binding legal effect between the parties that have agreed to them; and customary international law. Other international human rights instruments, while not legally binding, contribute to the implementation, understanding and development of international human rights law and have been recognized as a source of political obligation.
The African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights (ACHPR) is a quasi-judicial body tasked with promoting and protecting human rights and collective (peoples') rights throughout the African continent as well as interpreting the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights and considering individual complaints of violations of the Charter. This includes investigating human rights violations, creating and approving programs of action towards encouraging human rights, and set up effect communication between them and states to get first hand information on violations of human rights. Although the ACHPR is under a regional government facility, they don't have any actual power and enforcement over laws. This ends up in them drafting up proposals to send up the chain of command to the Assembly of Heads of State and Government and they will act accordingly.
The African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights is an international human rights instrument that is intended to promote and protect human rights and basic freedoms in the African continent.
The Optional Protocol on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography is a protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child and requires parties to prohibit the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography.
Contributing to the establishment of human rights system in Africa are the United Nations, international law and the African Union which have positively influenced the betterment the human rights situation in the continent. However, extensive human rights abuses still occur in many sections of the continent. Most of the violations can be attributed to political instability, racial discrimination, corruption, post-colonialism, economic scarcity, ignorance, illness, religious bigotry, debt and bad financial management, monopoly of power, lack/absence of judicial and press autonomy, and border conflicts. Many of the provisions contained in regional, national, continental, and global agreements remained unaccomplished.
The individual member states of the African Union (AU) coordinate foreign policy through this agency, in addition to conducting their own international relations on a state-by-state basis. The AU represents the interests of African peoples at large in intergovernmental organizations (IGO's); for instance, it is a permanent observer at the United Nations' General Assembly.
Fatsah Ouguergouz is an Algerian judge born in France.
The 2nd European Union - African Union Summit, which was held on 8 December – 9 December 2007 in Lisbon, Portugal, was the second summit between heads of state and government from EU and Africa. It was hosted by Portugal, the holder of the EU's rotating presidency. During the summit, the "Joint EU-Africa Strategy", the "Action Plan" and the "Lisbon Declaration" were adopted.
The Inter-African Committee on Traditional Practices Affecting the Health of Women and Children(IAC) (French: Comité interafricain sur les pratiques traditionnelles affectant la santé des femmes et des enfants) is a non-governmental organization (NGO) which seeks to change social values and raise consciousness towards eliminating female genital mutilation (FGM) and other traditional practices which affect the health of women and children in Africa.
Hassan Bubacar Jallow is a Gambian judge who has served as Chief Justice of the Gambia since February 2017. He was the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) from 2003 to 2016, and the Prosecutor of the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals (IRMCT) from 2012 to 2016, both at the rank of United Nations Under Secretary-General. He served as Minister of Justice and Attorney General from 1984 to 1994 under President Dawda Jawara.
The Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa, better known as the Maputo Protocol, is an international human rights instrument established by the African Union that went into effect in 2005. It guarantees comprehensive rights to women including the right to take part in the political process, to social and political equality with men, improved autonomy in their reproductive health decisions, and an end to female genital mutilation. It was adopted by the African Union in Maputo, Mozambique, in 2003 in the form of a protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights.
Burkina Faso ratified the 2000 UN TIP Protocol in May 2002.
Human trafficking in the Ivory Coast referred to the practice of forced labour and commercial sexual exploitation which used Côte d'Ivoire a source, transit, and destination country for women and children who were trafficked for these purposes.
Sidiki Kaba is a Senegalese politician who served as the 15th Prime Minister of Senegal from 6 March 2024 to 3 April 2024.
The African Court of Justice and Human Rights (ACJHR) is an international and regional court in Africa. It was founded in 2004 by a merger of the African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights and the Court of Justice of the African Union. It is the primary judicial agency of the African Union. It is the first regional court with international criminal jurisdiction.
Abubacarr Marie "Ba" Tambadou is a Gambian lawyer and politician who is currently the Registrar of the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals, an international court founded by the United Nations Security Council. From 2017 to 2020, Tambadou served as Minister of Justice and Attorney General in Gambian President Adama Barrow's cabinet.
Reine Adélaïde Sophie Alapini-Gansou is a Beninese jurist who has been a judge of the International Criminal Court since March 2018.
Crime in Cote d'Ivoire is prevalent and versatile across the West African country. The most common forms of crime include child labour, arms trafficking, terrorism and human rights abuse. Other less common, but still evident types of crime include cannabis and synthetic drug trade, sex trafficking, fauna and flora crimes, cybercrime.
↑ de Bassompierre, Leanne; Mieu, Baudelaire (April 29, 2020). "Ivory Coast Withdraws From African Human Rights Court". Bloomberg News. Archived from the original on April 30, 2020. Ivory Coast withdrew from the African Human Rights and Peoples Court, a week after the tribunal ordered the West African nation to suspend an arrest warrant against presidential hopeful Guillaume Soro, who on Tuesday was sentenced to 20 years in jail.
Faix, Martin; Jamali, Ayyoub (2022). "Is the African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights in an Existential Crisis?". Netherlands Quarterly of Human Rights. 40: 56–74. doi:10.1177/09240519211072424. S2CID245943959.
J. B. Cartes-Rodríguez (2024), "The African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights", UPNA, Navarra, 264 pp. ISBN978-84-9769-403-2
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