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35 Wis. Int'l L.J. 458 (2017-2018)
Necessary Check Points or Immovable Roadblocks: Accessing the African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights

handle is hein.journals/wisint35 and id is 470 raw text is: NECESSARY CHECK POINTS OR IMMOVABLE ROADBLOCKS? ACCESSING THE AFRICAN COURT ON HUMAN AN PEOPLES' RIGHTS OLIVER WrNDRTDGE* ABSTRACT The African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights is in many ways an ideal destination for litigating alleged human rights violations. Unlike other regional human rights courts, the African Court has jurisdiction to consider alleged violations not only of its key regional human rights instrument, the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights, but also other international human rights instruments. In its young history, the African Court has also demonstrated its ability to tackle sensitive issues and deliver robust judgments on a range of topics including freedom of expression, the right to fair trial and participation in government. Moreover, the African Court has the power to issue provisional orders and award reparations. However, accessing the African Court remains difficult. In order for individuals and NGOs to petition the African Court directly, the AU member state subject to the application must have undertaken a triple layer of ratifications, something that, at the time of writing, only eight out of 55 have done. This paper examines how applicants can petition the African Court. It reviews the three layers of ratification and suggests how potential applicants may be able to use the African human rights system more widely to circumnavigate jurisdictional hurdles. The paper concludes that with proper access, the African Court has the potential to be a truly continental court-what is required is further actions from the African Court, member states, and civil society to put this into action. Oliver Windridge is a British lawyer specializing in international human rights and international criminal law. Oliver is founder of The ACtHPR Monitor, a website and blog dedicated to the African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights. He serves on the African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights List of Counsel (pro bono) and currently acts as counsel in cases pending before the African Court and African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights. Oliver is grateful to the WTLJ team for their assistance on this paper. The views expressed herein are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of any organization affiliated with the author. Oliver can be contacted at oliver.windridge@gmail.com and via Twitter @oliverwindridge.

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