ACC Stakeholders Platform

For African citizens to benefit from the existence of the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights (the African Court), access to the Court should not be a major problem, and when access is guaranteed, compliance with its decisions should follow course. This is because central to the effectiveness of any regional human rights organ is access, and compliance of decisions by State Parties.

The African Court was established to complement the protective mandate of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (the Banjul Commission) 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. The African Court which is the judicial arm of the African Union (AU) was established by virtue of Article 1 of 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). It was adopted on 9 June 1998 in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, and entered into force on 25 January 2004. The Court started its operations in the year 2006 in Arusha, Tanzania where it has its permanent seat.

Twenty years after the adoption of the Court Protocol, a significant number of African citizens are still not able to access the African Court directly due to a very low number of countries that have deposited Article 34(6) Declaration of the Court Protocol to allow direct access to the African Court for individuals and Non-Government Organizations (NGOs) with observer status before the Banjul Commission. Out of the 34 countries that have ratified the Court Protocol, only eight countries have deposited Article 34(6) declaration, these are; Burkina Faso, Ghana, Guinea Bissau, The Gambia, Mali, Malawi, Niger and Tunisia. And in the span of four years between 2016 and 2020, four (4) States withdrew from Article 34(6) declaration, limiting direct access to the African Court for individuals and NGOs, these are; Rwanda, Tanzania, Benin and Cote d’Ivoire. This poses a great challenge to the mandate of the African Court and makes it increasingly challenging for victims of human rights violations to access justice and seek reparations when they are not satisfied with local remedies. Although indirect access to the African Court for NGOs exists through referrals of cases from the Banjul Commission to the African Court, such avenue has been limited in scope and efficacy.

Nevertheless, compliance with the decisions of the African Court by State Parties is another key challenge that not only affects the effectiveness of the Court, but also victims of human rights violations from obtaining reparations. Implementation of the African Court decisions currently stand at less than 10%.

While there are continuing separate efforts by different stakeholders towards enhancing the effectiveness of the African Court, the Coalition believes that a convening that brings together diverse stakeholders is more ideal to exchange ideas and deliberate on the roles and strategies that can be adopted to enhance direct access to the African Court for individuals and NGOs, as well as discussions around enhancing implementation of decisions of the African Court.