Protecting Human Rights Before the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights

The African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights is the continental court responsible for ensuring respect for the African Charter and the other human rights instruments ratified by states. It sits in Arusha, Tanzania. Its judgments are binding on the states that are parties to the case.

A Court established by the Ouagadougou Protocol

The Court was established by a Protocol to the African Charter adopted in Ouagadougou in 1998. According to its 2024 activity report, thirty-four African Union member states had ratified the Protocol as at 31 December 2024. Chad ratified it in January 2016.

Who can bring a case?

The Protocol allows cases to be brought by the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, by state parties and by African intergovernmental organisations. Individuals and non-governmental organisations with observer status before the Commission may also bring cases directly, but on one condition: that the respondent state has deposited the declaration provided for in Article 34(6) of the Protocol.

That declaration remains rare. According to the same report, only eight states had deposited it at the end of 2024, and Chad was not among them. In practice, a person complaining of a violation attributed to a state that has not made the declaration cannot go directly to the Court: they may submit a communication to the African Commission, in Banjul, which has the power to refer the case to the Court.

Admissibility conditions

Whether brought before the Court or the Commission, a complaint must satisfy the conditions of Article 56 of the Charter. In particular it must:

• indicate the identity of its author, even if anonymity is requested;
• be compatible with the Charter and the Constitutive Act of the African Union;
• not be written in disparaging language;
• not be based exclusively on news disseminated through the media;
• be submitted after domestic remedies have been exhausted, unless these are unduly prolonged;
• be submitted within a reasonable time;
• not deal with a case already settled by another international body.

Exhaustion of domestic remedies is, in practice, the most debated point: it must be shown that the national courts were seised up to the last useful level, or explained why those remedies were unavailable or ineffective.

What the Court can decide

• Order provisional measures in cases of extreme gravity or urgency, to avoid irreparable harm.
• Find a violation of a right guaranteed by the Charter or by another instrument ratified by the state.
• Order reparations, including the payment of compensation.

Preparing an application

A sound application rests on a precise statement of facts, dated evidence, proof that each admissibility condition is met and a quantified, substantiated claim for reparation. The Court also has a legal aid scheme for applicants without means.

The status of ratifications and declarations changes and must be checked at the date of filing. Every situation calls for a prior admissibility review.