Respondent State ratified the Protocol on 25 January 2004, the temporal jurisdiction of the Court is established only with respect to alleged violations committed after that date, except if the said violations are continuing.6 In this regard, the Court has consistently held that even if the alleged violations began before the Respondent State became a party to the Charter and the Protocol, its temporal jurisdiction will be established for the violations that continued after the Respondent State became a party to both instruments.7 30. In the instant case, the Court notes that the Respondent State became a party to the Charter on 31 March 1992. On that basis, the Court observes that when the plot of land in question was expropriated in 1980, the Respondent State did not bear any obligation under the Charter. 31. The Court further notes that the expropriation of the Applicants’ land, which occurred in 1980, is, by its nature, an instantaneous act that did not continue after the date of entry into force of the Protocol with respect to the Respondent State, which was on 25 January 2004. The Court also observes that the decision to expropriate which was made in 1980 definitively transferred the ownership of the land to the Respondent State, without any basis to consider the continuity of the act. 32. Consequently, the Court considers that it does not have temporal jurisdiction to consider the Applicants’ claims in relation to the right of ownership over the expropriated parcel of land, insofar as expropriation is an instantaneous act. 33. With regard to the allegations concerning the Applicants’ rights of ownership over the land that was not expropriated but sold to third parties by the Respondent State in 2002, the Court notes that as of that date, although the Respondent State was not yet a party to the Protocol, the dispute went through judicial proceedings involving the two parties before the Tribunal of First Instance of Abidjan, which rendered its decision on 16 February 2016. 6 7 Kobena Fory v. Côte d'Ivoire, ibid, § 32; Zongo and Others v. Burkina Faso (merits), supra, § 73. Kambole v. Tanzania, ibid, § 24; Kobena Fory v. Côte d'Ivoire, ibid, § 33. 9