AfCHPR

The Court consists of eleven judges who are nationals of Member States of the African Union. According to Article 11 to 14 of the Protocol they are elected by secret ballot by the Assembly of the Heads of State of the African Union from among jurists of high moral character and of recognised practical, judicial or academic competence and experience in the field of human and peoples' rights.

The first judges of the African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights were elected on the 22 January 2006 at the Eighth Ordinary Session of the Executive Council of the African Union, held in Khartoum, the Sudan. The eleven judges took the oath of office on the 2 July 2006 during the Seventh Ordinary Session of the African Union's summit of the Heads of State and Government in Banjul, the Gambia.

The President of the Court is Justice Jean Mutsinzi (Rwanda), while Justice Sophia A.B. Akuffo (Ghana) is the Court's Vice-President. The President and Vice-President are elected for a term of two years and may be re-elected only once.

The other judges - in order of precedence - are Justices El. Hadji Guissé (Senegal), Kelello Justina Mafoso-Guni (Lesotho), Bernard Makgabo Ngoepe (South Africa), Hamdi Faraj Fanoush (Libya), Modibo Tounty Guindo (Mali), Gérard Niyungeko (Burundi), Fatsah Ouguergouz (Algeria), Joseph Nyamihana Mulenga (Uganda) and Githu Muigai (Kenya).

Justice Jean Mutsinzi
[ President of the Court ] - Rwanda -
Justice Jean Mutsinzi is from Rwanda. He was elected for a six-year term of office. Nominated as President of the African Court for a first term of two years, he can be re-elected to this post for a second and final term of two years.

Jean Mutsinzi is a judge at the Supreme Court of Rwanda and a former President of the Supreme Court and the Superior Council of the Judiciary of Rwanda. He was a secretary of the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights and holds a Ph.D. in Law from the University of Brussels, Belgium. Justice Mutsinzi is also a former Professor of Law at the National University of Zaire and the Kigali Independent University.

Justice Sophia A. B. Akuffo
[ Vice-President of the Court ] - Ghana -
Justice Sophia A. B. Akuffo is from Ghana and was elected for a two-year term of office. At the time of her election, she was a judge at the Supreme Court of Ghana and has been a member of several organisations, including the Advisory Committee of the Commonwealth Judicial Education Institute. She is also the current Vice-President of the African Court and will serve in that capacity for two years, which may be renewed once.

Her publications include: The Application of Information & Communication Technology in the Judicial Process - The Ghanaian Experience, presented to the African Judicial Network, Ghana (2002).

Justice El Hadji Guissé
- Senegal -
Justice El Hadji Guissé is from Senegal and was elected for a four-year term of office. He has practiced Law since 1970 and has served as a former Chairman of the UN Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities. He was also President of the Court of Appeal in Dakar, Senegal.

At the time of his election, he was the Special Rapporteur to the United Nations Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights and was responsible for carrying out a detailed report on the relationship between the enjoyment of economic, social and cultural rights and the promotion of the right to drinking water supplies and sanitation.

Justice Kelello Justina Mafoso-Guni
- Lesotho -
Justice Kelello Justina Mafoso-Guni is from the Kingdom of Lesotho. She completed her studies of law at the Universities of Lesotho and Edinburgh, before becoming Crown Counsel in her home country. She then moved to live and work in the United Kingdom, where she was a member of the civil service for 12 years.

On her return to Africa, she served as a magistrate in Zimbabwe for a further 12 years, becoming the first woman to be appointed to the bench. Returning to Lesotho, Justice Kelello took up a position at the High Court Bench, another post to which she was the first female appointee. She has since been elected to serve on a four-year term as a judge with the African Court on Human and People's Rights.

Justice Bernard Makgabo Ngoepe
- South Africa -
Justice Bernard Makgabo Ngoepe is from South Africa. He was elected for a two-year term in 2006, and was then re-elected in 2008 for an additional six years.

After acting as a judge of the Constitutional Court of South Africa (1995), he joined the country's Supreme Court of Appeal as a judge in 1998. He was appointed and then re-appointed to the chair of the Council of Review for Serious Offences (1996 to date).

In 1995, Justice Ngoepe was also made a judge of the Transvaal Provincial Division of the High Court of South Africa, later becoming its Judge President (1999 to date).

Justice Ngoepe has received a number of awards in the field of human rights.

Justice Hamdi Faraj Fanoush
- Libya -
Justice Hamdi Faraj Fanoush is from Libya, where he is a respected judge of long standing. As well as being a member of Libya's Superior Council of Judiciary, he is currently Chief Justice (President) of the Court of Appeal in Tripoli.

Judge Fanoush is a regular lecturer and trainer on human rights issues for the Libyan judiciary, and is generally dedicated to promoting human rights in his country.

Between 1984 and 1997, Judge Fanoush also served as Libya's ambassador to Cameroon.

Justice Modibo Tounty Guindo
- Mali -
Justice Modibo Tounty Guindo is from Mali. He was elected for a term of office of six years. He has previously worked as technical consultant at the Ministry of Justice, Mali and served as a Judge at the Court of First Instance in Timbuktu, Mali.

Justice Gérard Niyungeko
- Burundi -
Justice Gérard Niyungeko is from Burundi. He was elected for a term of six years.

He obtained a Ph.D. in Law from the University of Brussels, Belgium and was the President of the Constitutional Court of Burundi from 1992 to 1996. He also worked for the United Nations Development Programme as an international expert in legal and human rights issues and is a member of the Drafting Committee of the Research Group for Democratic, Economic and Social Development in Africa. At the time of his election, he was a Professor of Law at the University of Bujumbura (Université officielle de Bujumbura) in Burundi, where he holds the UNESCO Chair in Education for Peace and Conflicts Resolution.

He is the author of several publications, including Les Droits de L'Homme, Cours Destiné aux Formateurs (Human Rights, a teachers' manual) (1994).

Justice Fatsah Ouguergouz
- Algeria -
An Algerian national, Judge Fatsah Ouguergouz is graduated in Law from the University of Saint-Etienne (France) and hold a Ph. D. in International Law from the Graduate Institute of International Law (Geneva, Switzerland). Until November 2006, he was Secretary of the International Court of Justice (The Hague) where he worked for 12 years. Before joining the World Court, he was a Legal Officer at the Office of Legal Affairs of the United Nations (New York) and then a Human Rights Officer in Rwanda for the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. Judge Ouguergouz taught Public International Law at the Law School of the University of Geneva during four years. He is a former Orville H. Schell Fellow (Yale Law School), Guest Professor at the University Panthéon-Assas (Paris II, France) and Father Robert F. Drinan Professor of Human Rights at Georgetown University Law Center (Washington D.C.). He is regularly invited as guest lecturer by numerous universities, international organizations, or other institutions like the International Institute of Human Rights (Strasbourg, France) or the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR, Geneva). Judge Ouguergouz is a founding member and the Executive Director of the African Foundation for International Law (The Hague) as well as Associate Editor of the African Yearbook of International Law. He is Member of the International Editorial Advisory Board of the African Human Rights Law Journal (Centre for Human Rights, Université of Pretoria) and of the International Law in Domestic Courts Online (Amsterdam/Oxford). He is the author of numerous publications in the field of international law, including two books: The African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights - A Comprehensive Agenda for Human Dignity and Sustainable Democracy in Africa (Nijhoff Publishers, 2003, 1016 pages) and La Charte Africaine des droits de l'homme et des peuples - Une approche juridique des droits de l'homme entre tradition et modernité (Presses Universitaires de France, 1993, 479 pages).

Justice Joseph Nyamihana Mulenga
- Uganda -
Justice Joseph Nyamihana Mulenga is a Ugandan and was appointed to the Court in July 2008 for a term of six years . He holds a Bachelor of Laws (LL.B) Degree from the University of London, and was called to the English Bar by the Honourable Society of Middle Temple.

He first worked in the Department of Public Prosecutions of Uganda for four years, rising through the ranks from Pupil State Attorney to Senior State Attorney. Thereafter he worked as an Advocate in private practice and for about three years served as Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Uganda.

In 1997 Justice Mulenga was appointed a Justice of the Supreme Court of Uganda and in 2001 he was also appointed to the East African Court of Justice (EACJ) for a term of seven years, which he served initially as Vice-President and subsequently as President of the Court. He retired from both Courts in October 2008.