The African Court of Justice and Human Rights: Towards an Effective Institution for Human Rights Protection in Africa

Abstract

This study examines how the African Court of Justice and Human Rights can be more effective in human rights protection in Africa. At its core, it scrutinizes the current African human rights regime, its weaknesses and strengths. The study argues that for the African Court of Justice and Human rights to be an effective institution, it must remedy the shortcomings encountered by the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights as well as the African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights'. This thesis acknowledges that one of the main challenges for the consumers of human rights in Africa has been to find an effective forum in which the rights of the most vulnerable can be vindicated. It is argued that for the African Court of Justice and Human Rights to be an effective institution in Africa, it must position itself alongside African traditional judicial institutions and learn lessons from other well-established regional human rights institutions.