Dismantling Jurisdictional Barriers: Empowering Direct Access.to the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights

Abstract

Although the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights marks a formal legal milestone, the regional human rights framework remains deeply constrained because Art. 34(6) of its Protocol narrowly limits direct individual access. The voluntary nature of the direct access declaration compounded by State pushback, selective withdrawals, and institutional inertia within the African Commission’s referral framework generates structural jurisdictional obstacles that effectively exclude individual litigants and non-governmental organizations from accessing legal remedies. The paper critically analyze how jurisdictional limitations under Art. 5 and Art. 34(6) stifle public interest litigation. The paper employs a doctrinal legal methodology, conducting a rigorous exegesis through the systematic analysis of primary and secondary sources. Consequently, the core questions are: what specific State ratification patterns and Art. 34(6) declarations currently impedes individual and non-governmental organizations access to the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights? How can institutional frameworks be redesigned to protect applicants and local actors from State retaliation after filing a case? What structural lessons can the African Court learn from the European Court of Human Rights and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights regarding standing and direct petitions? What precise legal amendments to the protocol establishing the Court are required to make direct individual access universal and mandatory for all State parties? These core questions serve as the foundational axis of this paper, dictating the trajectory of the analysis. The paper finds that Art. 34(6) create a bottleneck, leading to severe under-utilization with only a handful of ratifying States and subsequent strategic State withdrawals. It concludes that optional direct access under Art. 34(6) of the African Court Protocol severely fragments regional justice, requiring mandatory institutional referral rules and universal State ratification to transition from a symbolic tribunal to an effective human rights remedy.