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Executive Council Thirty-Fourth Ordinary Session 7 – 8 February 2019 Addis Ababa, Ethiopia ; The African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights (the Court) was established in terms 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 (hereinafter referred to as "the Protocol"), adopted on 9 June 1998, in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, by the then Organization of African Unity (OAU). The Protocol entered into force on 25 January 2004. The Court became operational in 2006 and is composed of eleven (11) Judges elected by the Executive Council and appointed by the Assembly of Heads of State and Government of the African Union. The Seat of the Court is in Arusha, the United Republic of Tanzania. Article 31 of the Protocol mandates the Court to "…submit to each regular session of the Assembly, a report on its work. The report shall specify, in particular, the cases in which a State has not complied with the Court's judgment.

Introduction -- The political context for human rights in Africa -- The Protocol to the African Charter on the Establishment of an African Court -- The relationship between the African Commission and the African Court -- Structure, mandate and composition of the African Court -- Conclusion

AbstractThis contribution examines access to the African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights in the first decade of its operation. Compared with other regional human rights Courts over the corresponding period, the African Court has decided more contentious cases. Direct access accounts for this difference. Acceptance by States of optional direct access is a necessary but insufficient condition for actual access. The reasons for the Commission's reluctance to refer cases, which hampered indirect access to the Court, are investigated. Although the Court's advisory jurisdiction has found limited application, it has welcomed amici curiae and showed some acceptance of the role of original complainants before the Court.

This paper aims at dissecting, using a purely legalistic approach, the jurisprudence of the African Court on Human and Peoples Rights (the Court) as it manifests in its decided cases. The aim is to show how the Court has dealt with the state's consent and validity of its seizure as a prerequisite for its jurisdiction. This is important in showing how the Court has fulfilled or failed to fulfil the objective of providing justice to individuals against actions of the state as the primary objective of its establishment.
The review considered those cases that are available online on the Court's website , and those reported in the African Court Law Reports. The paper concludes that African states, as history has it, have been reluctant to submit to supranational monitoring and scrutiny of their human rights records and behaviour. This state of affairs is worsened by the unchecked freedom of states to make and withdraw declarations entitling individuals to access the Court. It is therefore recommended that the aspects in the Protocol that establishes the Court, especially those relating to the competency of the Court to receive individual complaints be reassessed so as they are couched in a manner and terms that facilitate the achievement of the primary objective for the establishment of the Court.