General information
The Court has the competence to take final and binding decisions on human rights violations perpetrated by AU Member States.
The competence of the African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights (Court) is based on its jurisdiction and the law that it will apply when exercising this jurisdiction.
Jurisdiction
The Court has jurisdiction over all cases and disputes submitted to it regarding the interpretation and application of the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights (Charter), the Protocol to the Charter on the Establishment of the African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights (Court's Protocol) and any other relevant human rights instrument ratified by States that are party to a case. The Court shall determine disputes concerning whether it has jurisdiction to hear a matter.
- Advisory Jurisdiction
The Court may, at the request of a Member State of the African Union (AU), any of the organs of the AU, or any African organisation recognised by the AU, provide an opinion on any legal matter relating to the Charter or any other relevant human rights instruments, provided that the subject matter of the opinion is not related to a matter being examined by the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights (African Commission).
There are fifty-three (53) AU Member States all of whom have ratified the Charter but only twenty-five (25) have ratified the Court's Protocol. These Member States are : Algeria, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Côte d'Ivoire, Comoros, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Kenya, Libya, Lesotho, Mali, Malawi, Mozambique, Mauritania, Mauritius, Nigeria, Niger, Rwanda, South Africa, Senegal, Tanzania, Togo, Tunisia and Uganda.
African Organisations recognised by the AU include the Regional Economic Communities (RECs) recognised by the African Union. They have been set up pursuant to the Treaty Relating to the Establishment of the African Economic Community of 1991. Though there are many RECs operating within AU Member States, in line with a decision of the Assembly of Heads of State and Government, there are only eight (8) RECs recognised by the AU. These are : Arab Maghreb Union (AMU), Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), Community of Sahel-Saharan States (CEN-SAD), East African Community (EAC), Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS), Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), Intergovernmental Authority for Development (IGAD) and the Southern African Development Community (SADC). The other category of African organisations recognised by the AU is those that the Assembly has granted Observer Status to the Union.
The organs of the AU as set out in the Constitutive Act, most of which have been established while others are yet to become operational, are:- The Assembly of the Union (Assembly) - comprises Heads of State and Government of AU Member States or their duly accredited representatives. It is the supreme organ of the Union.
- The Executive Council - comprises Ministers in charge of Foreign Affairs or Authorities designated by the Governments of AU Member States. The Executive Council reports to the Assembly.
- The Commission - the Secretariat of the Union, which is composed of the Chairperson, the Deputy Chairperson, eight Commissioners, all of whom are elected by the Assembly, and staff members who are appointed.
- The Permanent Representatives' Committee (PRC), which is composed of Permanent Representatives to the AU and other Plenipotentiaries of Member States and is charged with preparing the work of the Executive Council.
- The Peace and Security Council (PSC) - established by an Organisation of African Union Summit Decision taken in Lusaka, Zambia in July 2001. It became an organ of the AU through the Protocol on Amendments to the Constitutive Act of the AU of 2003. It deals with the AU's peace and security issues.
- The Pan-African Parliament (PAP) is the organ charged with ensuring the full participation of African peoples in governance, development and economic integration of the continent. At the moment, it performs only an advisory role, but it will have legislative powers only when the protocol establishing it is reviewed to this effect.
- The Court of Justice and Human and People's Rights - once operational, this will be the supreme judicial organ of the AU. By the time the Constitutive Act of the AU was adopted in 2000, the African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights was already legally established through its Protocol, which was adopted in 1998, but which had not yet entered into force. The Constitutive Act created the Court of Justice of the African Union as one of the AU organs. In July 2006, the Assembly decided that the Court of Justice of the African Union and the African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights should be merged to form the African Court of Justice and Human Rights. By then, the Protocol of the African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights had entered into force in January 2004 and judges of the Court had been elected by the Assembly in January 2006. The document facilitating the merger of the two Courts, The Protocol on the Statute of the African Court of Justice and Human Rights was adopted by the Assembly in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, on 1 July 2008. The Human Rights Court is being operationalised on the understanding that, once the Protocol on the Statute of the African Court of Justice and Human Rights enters into force, the merged Court will commence full operations.
- The Economic, Social and Cultural Council (ECOSOCC) - an advisory organ that is composed of different social and professional groups of the Member States of the AU.
- The Specialised Technical Committees (STCs) - these are meant to address sectoral issues and are convened at Ministerial and Senior Government Officials' Levels.
- The Financial Institutions - work is in progress to establish the three financial institutions of the Union, which are the African Central Bank, the African Monetary Fund, and the African Investment Bank.
- Though not expressly stated to be organs of the Union in the Constitutive Act, the African Commission and the African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (the treaty-monitoring body for the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child) are, through a decision of the Assembly, recognised as institutions within the framework of the AU.
- Contentious Jurisdiction
The Court can deal with all cases and disputes submitted to it concerning interpretation and application of the Charter, the Court's Protocol and any other relevant human rights instrument ratified by the States concerned. - Amicable settlements
The Court also has jurisdiction to promote amicable settlement in cases pending before it in accordance with the provisions of the Charter. - Judgments
The Court has the jurisdiction to interpret a judgment it has rendered and can also review its own judgment in light of new evidence.
The Court can entertain cases from a multiplicity of parties, therefore setting a wide basis for it to exercise its jurisdiction.
Applicable Law
The Court shall apply the provisions of the Charter and any other relevant human rights instruments ratified by the States concerned in a particular case. The Charter provides that the sources of law that apply for the monitoring of the implementation of the Charter are international law on human and peoples' rights, particularly from the provisions of various African instruments on human and peoples' rights, the Charter of the United Nations, the Charter of the Organisation of African Unity, now the Constitutive Act of the AU, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, other instruments adopted by the United Nations and by African countries in the field of human and peoples' rights as well as from the provisions of various instruments adopted within the Specialized Agencies of the United Nations of which the parties to the Charter are members.
For further details and to download documents on human rights instruments see Sources of Law.