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AFRICAN SYSTEM OF HUMAN
RIGHTS PROTECTION
MARIAM JIKIA
Doctor of Juridical Science
In 1998 Organization of African Unity in Burkina Faso established the African
Court on Human and Peoples‘ Rights. On this conference 15 states signed
additional protocol of Charter. Today there are 24 state members that ratified this
document.
African system of Human Rights protection is one of the most important
international system in this field, thou it still needs to be improved.
There is no doubt about the scale of the needs. In the time that has elapsed,
countless human rights violations have taken place on the African continents,
with minorities and indigenous peoples particularly affected.
For imporvement of African System of Human Rights all members of African
Unity should sign Charter of Human and Peoples‘ Rights, which rises positive
and negative obligations of member states on protection of human rights.
According to the statistical data there no applications were claimed to the
Court during 10 years. It means that there are lots of things to be done.
In spite of abovemnetioned some important steps have been taken: judges
have been appointed, rules of procedure have been elaborated and the location for
the Court – Arusha in Tanzania – has been established.
One of the most important issues is the relationship between the African
Commission and African Court. The African Commission is currently the main
human rights monitoring body on the continent. However Commission is a quasijudicial
body and the states‘ track record of enforcing its decisions has been poor.
With stronger political will from states these problems could be overcome.
Civil society will continue to play a vital role in further development of this system,
but it’s not only their responsibility. States as well are obliged to protect their
population as they promised daceda go.
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