Important Dates

The African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights has been facing backlashes from Member States for the past several years. Indeed, since 2016, four Member States that had signed the non-mandatory declaration that allows individuals and NGOs to initiate cases before the Court have withdrawn their declarations. With an already low commitment in that regard – only ten countries had so far signed the above-mentioned declaration –, this is a serious blow to the Court and its legitimacy. While many reasons have been put forward to try to explain this setback, using the case-law of the Court, I argue in this paper that this is mainly due to the Court shifting away from its core mission, which is human rights, to electoral matters. Even though some electoral rights are considered as human rights, the handling of the cases by the Court is very problematic.

Ousseni Illy
Associate Professor of Law
University Thomas Sankara, Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso

• Join Zoom Meeting: https://zoom.us/j/96803636444?pwd=cHA3NTA0OUxTUjlvdENSRGVtVlZVUT09
  
• Meeting ID: 968 0363 6444
  
• Passcode: 963306
  
  
• One tap mobile
  +13126266799,,96803636444#,,,,,,0#,,963306# US (Chicago)
  +16465588656,,96803636444#,,,,,,0#,,963306# US (New York)
  

• Dial by your location
  +1 312 626 6799 US (Chicago)
  +1 646 558 8656 US (New York)
  +1 301 715 8592 US (Washington D.C)
  +1 346 248 7799 US (Houston)
  +1 669 900 9128 US (San Jose)
  +1 253 215 8782 US (Tacoma)
  
  
• Find your local number: https://zoom.us/u/abjjZWutXp