African Court Delivers Judgment in the Matter of Femi Falana v ersus the African Union

AFRICAN COURT ON HUMAN AND PEOPLES’ RIGHTS

COUR AFRICAINE DES DROITS DE L’HOMME ET DES PEUPLES

P.O Box 6274 Arusha, Tanzania Telephone: +255 732 979 506 Fax. +255 732 979 503

Web site www.african-court.org Email. registrar@african-court.org

Office of the Registrar

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In his application Femi Falana asks the Court to find Article 34(6) of the Protocol

establishing the Court illegal, null and void as it is inconsistent with Articles 1, 2, 7, 13, 26

and 66 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights. According to him, the

requirement for a State to make a declaration, in addition to the ratification of the Protocol

establishing the Court, to allow its citizens and Non-Governmental Organizations to

directly institute cases before the Court is a violation of human rights.

The Respondent, the African Union, disputes the allegations of the Applicant and

maintains that the African Union is neither a party to the African Charter on Human and

Peoples’ Rights, nor to the Protocol establishing the Court. The Respondent further

submits that the African Union is not the legal representative of its Members which are

sovereign States. For that reason, the Respondent submits, the Court has no

competence to decide the matter and argues that the application is inadmissible because

the Respondent is not a party to the African Charter and/or the Protocol establishing the

Court. The Respondent adds that the Applicant has not even exhausted local remedies

before bringing his case before the African Court. The Respondent also maintains that the

obligations of State Parties to the African Charter and the Protocol establishing the Court

cannot be inferred on the African Union and are only applicable to State Parties thereto.

The Application was lodged with the Court on 20 February 2011 and communicated to the

Respondent and to the AU Member States on 28 March 2011. The Court examined the

Application and both the Respondents’ response and the Applicant’s reply in September

2011 and decided that written submissions on the matter were closed. The parties were

called for a public hearing where they presented their oral arguments on 22nd and 23rd

March 2012.

In this case, the Applicant represented himself and the Respondent was represented by

Advocate Bahame T. Nyanduga assisted by officers from the Office of the Legal Counsel

of the African Union Commission. The judgment will be delivered in a public hearing on

26 June 2012, at 10:00 am (East-African Time) at the Court’s premises in Arusha, Tanzania.