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7 Transnat'l Hum. Rts. Rev. [1] (2020)

handle is hein.journals/tranhurrv7 and id is 1 raw text is: Zschirnt: Opening the Doors to Justice in Africa: Analyzing State Acceptanc OPENING THE DOORS TO JUSTICE IN AFRICA: ANALYZING STATE ACCEPTANCE OF THE RIGHT OF INDIVIDUAL APPLICATION TO THE AFRICAN COURT ON HUMAN AND PEOPLES' RIGHTS SIMON ZSCHIRNT* Abstract: The African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights took its place as the youngest of the three regional human rights courts with its establishment in 2006. However, the Court's jurisdiction remains a work in progress. Thirty of the African Union's fifty-five member states have ratified the protocol allowing the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights to refer cases to the Court but only ten have made the optional declaration allowing individuals direct access. Previous research has indicated that transitional states desirous of locking in new commitments to democracy and human rights have been particularly likely to ratify the protocol but there has been little analysis of optional declarations, which have been the primary means by which cases have reached the Court. This article fills this gap by analyzing the circumstances underlying optional declarations. It finds that most have been associated with consolidations of prior democratic transitions. Keywords: African Union; African human rights system; African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights; Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights on the Establishment of an African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights; optional declaration 1 Introduction Great expectations greeted the establishment of the African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights (ACtHPR) with the swearing in of its eleven judges on 2 July 2006. With the establishment of the ACtHPR, the African human rights system joined the European and Inter-American human rights systems as the third regional human rights system with a specialized human rights court empowered to enforce regional human rights treaties by adjudicating claims against states. The successes of the ACtHPR's European and Inter-American counterparts led to the establishment of the ACtHPR being declared a watershed moment and the beginning of true human rights enforcement on a troubled continent that despite having led the way in the promulgation of human rights treaties had recently experienced genocides in Rwanda and Darfur and mass * Associate Professor of Political Science, Texas A&M International University, 5201 University Boulevard, Laredo, TX 78041, USA, Email: simon.zschimt@tamiu.edu.

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