Jurist Rights group calls on member states to support African Court

[Dadparvar]

Amnesty International on Friday urged member states of the African Union to continue providing political, legal, and financial support to the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights (African Court) to enable the court to carry out its mandate more effectively across the continent.

In light of the court’s 20th anniversary, which fell on July 2, 2026, Japhet Biegon, the deputy regional director for East and Southern Africa at Amnesty International, emphasized how important it is now more than ever to provide continued support to the court. He stated:

The African Court is an essential judicial avenue for individuals and civil society organizations who cannot obtain prompt, effective and adequate remedies for human rights violations in their own countries. Despite its challenges, the African Court has demonstrated dynamism and agility in examining the cases brought to it, developing strong jurisprudence and expanding the protection of human rights in Africa.

The African Court was created in 2006 to provide a fully judicial body with the authority to deliver binding judgments on human rights violations, a monumental moment for the region since previous complaints were only handled by the African Commission, a quasi-judicial body. Proponents for the creation of the court hailed its establishment as a victory for African sovereignty, especially after a long colonial past. Today, human rights are rooted in the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), which much of Africa was not a party to at the time due to colonization.

Proponents have celebrated a homegrown judicial body that specifically caters to the needs of the African people without needing to be reliant on distant Eurocentric international bodies, ensuring that localized legal mechanisms understand the geopolitical realities of the African continent. The African Court is unique in that it operates on a hybrid legal system that blends international human rights treaties with the domestic, colonial-era laws of individual African nations.

The court has been instrumental in assisting victims of human rights violations, having finalized over 250 cases, with many of the final judgments relating to a vast range of rights such as the right to fair trial, the right to be free from torture, and to election-related matters. However, numerous obstacles currently stand in the way of the court gaining full legitimacy across the continent. Critics frequently point out that only 34 out of the 55 African states have ratified the protocol to establish the court, and only seven states allow individuals and organizations to bring cases directly.

Although the court has delivered important judgments such as Norbert Zongo & Others v. Burkina Faso (2015), which protected the safety of journalists, and Léonce Munyarugerero Anudo v. United Republic of Tanzania (2018), which ruled that arbitrary deprivation of nationality is a violation of international law, many of these decisions cease to be implemented.

The post Rights group calls on member states to support African Court appeared first on JURIST - News.

Continue reading...

Note: We don't have any responsibilities about this news. Its been posted here by Feed Reader and we had no controls and checking on it. And because News posted here will be deleted automatically after 21 days, threads are closed so that no one spend time to post and discuss here. You can always check the source and discuss in their site.