CYIL vol. 8 (2017)

CYIL 8 ȍ2017Ȏ AFRICAN COURT ON HUMAN AND PEOPLES’ RIGHTS … The third and the final conference was held in Addis Ababa in 1997; it also included diplomats and prepared the last version of the Protocol, which was rather similar to the Nouakchott version. The Council of Ministers and Assembly of Heads of State and Government of the OAU approved the Protocol in 1998 29 without any amendments and it entered into force in 2004 upon its fifteenth ratification. The access of an individual to the Court remained conditioned by a special declaration of his or her home country. In conclusion, the way to the Court’s establishment displayed two interconnected features; firstly, a struggle to find a solution sensitive enough for Africa, secondly, tension between human rights protection and sovereignty preservation. This fully manifested itself during the negotiations of the Protocol; the countries subjected the admissibility of individual applications to a special declaration of each country under article 34(6) of the Protocol. As a result, the accessibility of the Court was strictly limited for individuals and NGOs. 30 For the OAU/AU countries this represented a compromise. On one hand, they gained their continental human rights court and could mitigate external and internal pressures for procedural human rights protection. On the other hand, their sovereignty remained untouched, since they could effectively prevent the Court from solving the cases of their citizens by refusing to make the declaration under article 34(6) of the Protocol. Towards admissibility of individual complaints The African countries were firstly supposed to ratify the Protocol and secondly to make the declaration establishing admissibility of individual complaints. Only then would individuals from those countries have the possibility to access the Court. This absence of automatic individual access to the Court was hugely criticized. 31 Substantive human rights protection and judicial overview represent two sides of the same coin; 32 therefore, the role of the Court for human rights protection was severely limited by the inadmissibility of individual complaints. Between 1998 and 2012, the Court could not issue any meritorious decision. All the proceedings were stopped because the Court lacked jurisdiction to solve the applications submitted by individuals (cf. Table 1 listing the finalized proceedings). This sparked vivid discussions on how to react to the situation. Scholars 33 argued that more states should have 29 Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Establishment of the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights adopted June 9, 1998, OAU Doc. OAU/LEG/EXP/AFCHPR/PROT (III). 30 MOHAMED, Abdelsalam A., ‘Individual and NGO participation in Human Rights Litigation Before the African Court Of Human And Peoples’ Rights: Lessons from European and Inter-American Court of Human Rights’ Journal of African Law , 1999, pp. 201-213. 31 Cf. VILJOEN, Frans, ‘The Human Rights Court’. LHOTSKÝ, Jan, ‘Specifika regionální ochrany lidských práv: Africký soud pro lidská práva a práva národů’ in ŽATECKÁ, Eva et al (eds), COFOLA 2011: The Conference Proceedings . Brno: Masarykova univerzita, 2011, pp. 550-561. NĚMČÁK, Vítězslav, ‘Cesta k prvnímu rozsudku Afrického soudu pro lidská práva’ Jiné Právo , 2010 < http://jinepravo.blogspot.cz/2010/04/vitezslav-nemcak- cesta-k-prvnimu.html > [Accessed 21/01/2014]. 32 ŠTURMA, Pavel, ‘Mezinárodní závazky v rámci kontrolních mechanismů v oblasti lidských práv: obecný přehled’ in ŠTURMA, P. (ed) Implementace lidských práv a mezinárodní kontrolní mechanismy . Praha: Univerzita Karlova v Praze – Právnická fakulta, ediční středisko, 1999, pp. 10-43. SCHEU, Harald Ch., Problematika judiciálních mechanismů v současném mezinárodním právu . Praha: Eurolex Bohemia, 2006. ŠTURMA, Pavel, Mezinárodní a evropské kontrolní mechanismy v oblasti lidských práv . Praha: C. H. Beck, 2003. 33 WACHIRA, George M., African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights , p. 28. LHOTSKÝ, Jan. ‘Specifika regionální ochrany’. NĚMČÁK, Vítězslav, ‘Cesta k prvnímu rozsudku’.

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