PROTOCOL ON THE STATUTE OF THE AFRICAN
COURT OF JUSTICE AND HUMAN RIGHTS
The Member States of the African Union, Parties to this Protocol,
RECALLING the objectives and principles enunciated in the Constitutive Act of the
African Union, adopted on 11 July 2000 in Lomé, Togo, in particular the commitment to
settle their disputes through peaceful means;
BEARING
IN MIND
their commitment
to promote
peace,
security and
stability on the
Continent and to protect human and peoples’ rights in accordance with the African
Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights and other relevant instruments relating to
human rights;
CONSIDERING that the
establishment of a Court of
relating to interpretation or
within the framework of the
Constitutive Act of the African Union provides for the
Justice charged with hearing, among other things, all cases
application of the said Act or of all other Treaties adopted
Union;
FURTHER
CONSIDERING
Decisions
Assembly/AU/Dec.83 (V) of the Assembly of the
(6-8 July 2004, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia) and Fifth
Sessions, to merge the African Court on Human
Justice of the African Union into a single Court,
Assembly/AU/Dec.45
(II)
and
Union, adopted respectively at its Third
(4-5 July 2005, Sirte, Libya), Ordinary
and Peoples’ Rights and the Court of
FIRMLY CONVINCED that the establishment of an African Court of Justice and Human
Rights shall assist in the achievement of the goals pursued by the African Union and
that the attainment of the objectives of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’
Rights requires the establishment of a judicial organ to supplement and strengthen the
mission of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights as well as the African
Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child;
TAKING DUE ACCOUNT of the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’
Rights on the Establishment an African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights, adopted
by the Assembly of Heads of States and Governments of the Organization of African
Unity on 10 June 1998 at Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, and which entered into force on
25 January 2004;
TAKING DUE ACCOUNT ALSO of the Protocol of the Court of Justice of the African
Union, adopted by the Assembly of the Union on 11 July 2003 in Maputo Mozambique;