Arusha, Tanzania Website: www.african-court.org Telephone: +255-272-510-510 JUDGMENT SUMMARY State asserted that, at the material time, it had not made the Declaration under Article 34(6) of the Protocol. Concerning the contention that the alleged violations predated the entry into force of the Protocol and the depositing of the Declaration, the Court reiterated its position that its temporal jurisdiction is determined from the date of the entry into force of the Protocol establishing it, and not from the date of the deposit of the Declaration, the latter only relating to its personal jurisdiction. The Court also noted that as an exception to this rule, it retains jurisdiction in instances where violations occurred before a State became a party to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (“the Charter”) or the Protocol, but the alleged violations have persisted subsequent to the entry into force of the Charter and the Protocol. In the circumstances, the Court found that the violations alleged by the Applicants were continuous thereby conferring it with temporal jurisdiction to hear and determine the Applications. Even though other aspects of its jurisdiction were not contested by the Respondent State, the Court nevertheless examined them in accordance with Rule 49(1) of the Rules of the Court (“the Rules”). With respect to personal jurisdiction, the Court noted that the Respondent State deposited the Declaration under Article 34(6) of the Protocol, which allows individuals to file Applications against it, as per Article 5(3) of the Protocol. The Court further recalled that the Respondent State withdrew its Declaration on 21 November 2019. In connection to this, the Court underscored that the withdrawal of the Declaration did not affect the present Applications since it took effect on 22 November 2020, which was after the Applications had already been filed. The Court further noted that given that the alleged violations pertained to rights enshrined in the Charter and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), instruments to which the Respondent State is a Party, it possessed the necessary material jurisdiction to examine the Applications. 2