African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights

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The African Court of Human and Peoples’ Rights (AfCHPR) was established by the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Establishment of an African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights (the Court Protocol) which entered into force in 2004. ^[1]

It is a regional court created to make judgments on African Union states' compliance with the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights. It came into being on January 25, 2004 with the ratification by fifteen member states of the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights Establishing the AfCHPR.^[2] As of April 2014, just 27 of the African Union's 54 members have ratified and are parties to the Court. The AU discourages prosecution of human rights abuses in the International Criminal Court, hoping that they would be tried by the AfCHPR instead; but the AfCHPR has achieved very little.^[3]

Functions

• Collect documents and undertake studies and researches on human and peoples’ rights matters in Africa;
• Lay down rules aimed at solving the legal problems relating to human and peoples’ rights;
• Ensure protection of human and peoples’ rights; and
• Interpret all the provisions of the Charter.

Location

The Court is located in Arusha, Tanzania, at the Phase II of the Mwalimu Julius Nyerere Conservation Centre Complex along Dodoma Road

Election of Judges

On January 22, 2006, the Eighth Ordinary Session of the Executive Council of the African Union elected the first eleven Judges of the African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights.

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.

Jurisdiction

Member states of the protocol establishing the Court, as well as the African Commission and African inter-governmental organisations, may bring before the Court applications against members states of the protocol.

Individuals and NGOs with observer status before the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, however, can file applications only against members states accepting that specific option (as of 2013, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Malawi, Mali, Tanzania and Rwanda).^[4]

Judgements

On December 15, 2009, the Court delivered its first judgment, finding an application against Senegal inadmissible.^[5]

The Court's first judgement 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. ^[6][7]

On March 28, 2014, the Court ruled against Burkina Faso, in a case brought by the family of Norbet 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.^[8][9]

Composition of the Court

Name	State	Position	Elected	Term Ends
Gerard Niyungeko	Burundi	President	2006	2012
Sophia A.B. Akuffo	Ghana	Vice-President	2006	2014
Jean Mutsinzi	Rwanda	Member	2006	2012
Fatsah Ouguergouz	Algeria	Member	2006	2016
Elsie Nwanwuri Thompson	Nigeria	Member	2010	2016
Sylvain Ore	Côte d'Ivoire	Member	2010	2016
Duncan Tambala	Malawi	Member	2010	2016
Augustino S. L. Ramadhani	Tanzania	Member	2010	2016
Modibo Tounty Guindo	Mali	Member	2006	2012
Bernard Ngoepe	South Africa	Member	2006	2014
Joseph Nyamihana Mulenga	Uganda	Member	2008	2014

Former Judges

Name	State	Position	Elected	Term Ended
George W. Kanyeihamba	Uganda	Member	2006	2008
Jean Emile Somda	Burkina Faso	Member	2006	2008
Githu Muigai	Kenya	Member	2008	2010
Hamdi Faraj Fannoush	Libya	Member	2006	2010
El Hadji Guissé	Senegal	Member	2006	2010
Kelello Justina Mafoso-Guni	Lesotho	Member	2006	2010

Planned merger with the African Court of Justice

On July 1, 2008, at the African Union Summit in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, Heads of State and Government signed a protocol^[10] 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 3 February 2014, only five countries have ratified the protocol out of 15 needed for its entry into force.^[11] The new court will be known as the African Court of Justice and Human Rights.

See also

• European Court of Human Rights - regional court originally established in 1950
• Inter-American Court of Human Rights - regional court established in 1979
• List of Linguistic Rights in Constitutions (Africa)
• Linguistic rights

External links

• Official website of the African Court on Human and People's Rights
• Biographies of AfCHPR Judges
• African International Courts and Tribunals Website
• Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights on the Establishment of an African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights
• African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights: Ten years on and still no justice (2008), London, Minority Rights Group
• Coalition for an Effective African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights
• The African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights, American Society of International Law, ASIL Insight, September 19, 2006, Volume 10, Issue 24
• "The African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights: An Introduction", a lecture by Mr. Frans Viljoen, Professor of International Human Rights Law at the University of Pretoria, in the Lecture Series of the United Nations Audiovisual Library of International Law

References

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