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General Information

The library shall provide library and information services to the African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights together with its registry. It will support the judicial activities and legal endeavours of the members and staff of the court, and serve as a specialised library focusing mainly on writings on human and peoples' rights. In responding to the various research demands the Library of the Court shall its collection not only in the area of human rights, but also in the fields of legislations of the member States, case law, international law, comparative law, and constitutional and public law. In the interest of human rights, the library will encourage other user communities to and exploit its resources.

The functions of the library will include:

1. Acquire, organise and make available legal materials, especially serials (print and electronic format) that require in-depth analysis of subject matter, provision of original bibliographic description and classification ; Organise the continuous production of a full range of library services, including the use of electronic document servers, external databases and other networked resources, as well as users service at the library desk ; Evaluate adequacy of existing reference tools for bibliographic description ; Advise other units and departments seeking expertise in content organisation and data ; Guide, coach, train and supervise professional and general service staff that may be assigned in the function ;
2. Carry out periodic user surveys to establish the ever-changing needs of the users.

The library shall be open as follows :

Monday to Friday : 8 am to 5pm
Weekends and Tanzanian Public Holidays : Closed

The proposed users of the library shall be as follows :

1. Main Users : These are the judges and staff of the African Union Court on Human Rights and Peoples' Rights.
2. Guest Users : These are students, researchers, representatives of parties in cases before the Court, staff of other organs of the African Union, Members of the Permanent Representative Council, and representatives of non-governmental and civil society organisations with research interest in human rights. These users will be able to access the library during the opening hours by appointment only. To make an appointment, they will have to contact the librarian at least one week in advance.

The library collection shall include :

• Professional texts
• Professional and scholarly journals
• Reference collection (biographies, bibliographies, dictionaries, encyclopedias, prospectuses, catalogues, annual reports etc.)
• Regional and international dailies (General)
• Regional and international journals (General)
• Electronic Journals
• Electronic Books
• Court Session reports
• Selected Audio Visual materials (CD, DVD, VHS)
• Journals (hard copies and electronic journals)
• Theses and other academic works in the area of Human Rights

To view the library rules and regulations, click here.

• Language coverage : English, French, Portuguese, and Arabic
• Library management software in use : KOHA/Inmagic/Procite
• Cataloguing Format : Marc 21
• Cataloguing Rules : Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules
• 2nd ed Classification system in use : Library of Congress (LoC)/Dewey Decimal
• Thesaurus : Sears list
• Staff : 1 librarian
• Floor area : 154 square metres, one floor