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The African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights: mapping resistance against a young court

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 May 2018

Tom Gerald Daly  and
Micha Wiebusch
Tom Gerald Daly*
Affiliation:
MLS Fellow, Melbourne Law School, and Associate Director for Research Engagement, Edinburgh Centre for Constitutional Law
Micha Wiebusch
Affiliation:
Researcher (PhD), Institute of Development Policy (IOB), University of Antwerp, and SOAS, University of London, and Associate Research Fellow, United Nations University Institute on Comparative Regional Integration Studies (UNU-CRIS)
*
*Corresponding author. E-mail: [email protected]
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Abstract

At first glance, it appears that the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights – the first pan-continental court of the African Union (AU) for human rights protection – epitomises the advances made by international courts in Africa in the past decade. Since its first judgment in 2009, the Court has taken a robust approach to its mandate and its docket is growing apace. However, a closer look at the overall context in which the Court operates reveals that it is susceptible to many of the patterns of resistance that have hampered other international courts in the region, which cut across the development of its authority and impact. This paper analyses the forms and patterns of resistance against the African Court and the actors involved, emphasising the additional difficulties entailed in mapping resistance to a young court compared to long-established courts, such as the European and Inter-American human rights courts.

Keywords

international human rights lawsociology of lawAfrican UnionAfrican Court on Human and Peoples' Rightsbacklash against international courts
Type
Article
Information
International Journal of Law in Context , Volume 14 , Special Issue 2: Resistance to International Courts , June 2018 , pp. 294 - 313
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2018 

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