African Court of Justice and Human Rights

The court is based in the city of Arusha, Tanzania, as is the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda and as was its predecessor the Court of Justice of the African Union.

The court has two chambers, one for general legal matters and one for rulings on the human rights treaties. Within this the court has both an advisory opinion role and adjudicative role. The court is competent to interpret its own judgments in an appellate chamber.

History

The African Court of Justice and Human Rights is an international court based in Arusha, Tanzania. A merging of the African Court on Human and People's Rights and the Court of Justice of the African Union was proposed by the chairperson of the Assembly of the African Union and the head of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, President Olusegun Obasanjo, in 2004. This idea of uniting the two courts was raised because of the African Union's insufficient funds. In January 2005, a panel of legal experts assembled in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia to formulate a draft protocol that honored the integrity of the two independent courts, yet established a way to regulate the decorum of the now merged court. Afterwards, a panel met in Nigeria to propose a draft protocol to the Executive Council of the African Union. In March 2005, the draft was approved and was passed to legal experts for their recommendations. The recommendations were presented at the African Union Summit in Sirte, Libya. It was decided that operations should begin, and the headquarters would be in the East region of Africa by the Assembly of Heads of State and Government.