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;