African Court of Human and Peoples' Rights. Development and procedural problems (PDF)

Seminar paper from the year 2014 in the subject Politics - Topic: Public International Law and Human Rights, grade: 1,0, University of Geneva, language: English, abstract: Ten years after the establishment of the African Court of Human and Peoples' Rights, the question arises how the Court has dealt with human rights issues so far. By analyzing the behavior of the Court in its case law, this paper shall examine the contribution of the African Court to the development of human rights in Africa and what its prospects might be.

This paper will emphasize the procedural problems that Art 34(6) of the Protocol represents concerning the access of African citizens to the Court and how the case law on this issue evidences the conflict between state sovereignty and human rights on the African continent, and the Court's difficult position in trying to reconcile them. Furthermore, the paper will provide an overview of the case law of the Court on human rights issues. On the one hand, the Court's decisions highlight a serious confusion among the population concerning the Court's role, showing that the Court is often considered to be an appellate organ that deals with ordinary civil law matters. On the other hand, however, once the Court comes to decide, it is capable of taking a liberal approach concerning political rights. Based on this case law, the paper will provide some main conclusions and give an outlook on the future of the Court.