{"id":44324,"date":"2020-05-19T08:43:37","date_gmt":"2020-05-19T06:43:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/44324-the-shrinking-african-court.html"},"modified":"2020-05-19T08:43:37","modified_gmt":"2020-05-19T06:43:37","slug":"the-shrinking-african-court","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/en\/44324-the-shrinking-african-court.html","title":{"rendered":"The shrinking African court"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Last April Benin and Ivory Coast decided to join Tanzania and Rwanda in preventing citizens and NGOs from bringing cases directly to the African Court on Human and Peoples\u2019 Rights. Such cases represented the vast majority of those brought before the court since it started to function in 2004. Only six states will now still allow individuals and civil society organizations to bring cases of human rights violations allegedly committed by their own state. So what has the only Panafrican court actually been doing and what is it still good for? Our thoughtful partners of Asymmetrical Haircuts and their guests Misha Plagis and Alice Banens bring some light on a human rights court that is hardly known and seems threatened to become an empty shell.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em>To listen to the podcast, click on the \"play\" button below:<\/em><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/player.blubrry.com\/id\/60597238\/#time-0&amp;darkOrLight-Light&amp;shownotes-ffffff&amp;shownotesBackground-ffc72c&amp;download-ffffff&amp;downloadBackground-382e2c&amp;subscribe-ffffff&amp;subscribeBackground-9b9593&amp;share-382e2c&amp;shareBackground-ffffff\" width=\"100%\" height=\"138px\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>\u201cNobody asks about the African Court ever\u201d, says one of our guests. But we do! <a href=\"https:\/\/www.african-court.org\/en\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">The African Court on Human and Peoples\u2019 Rights<\/a> has been in the news recently. Why? A couple of countries have said they are going to withdraw from a part of it \u2013 because it looks like they don\u2019t like some of its decisions. But this court is so much more, as we discover.<\/p>\n<p>You may already know it\u2019s based in Arusha and it\u2019s relatively young. In recent years it\u2019s come out with some substantial decisions on elections, land rights, political parties, fair trials. And people have started to take notice. It\u2019s part of the African Union, closely linked to the African Commission on Human and Peoples\u2019 Rights, which can bring cases to the Court. As can states.<\/p>\n<p>What\u2019s changed is that while only a few states have\u00a0allowed citizens and NGOs to bring cases, that number is shrinking \u2013 both Benin and Ivory Coast now say \u2018non\u2019. Tanzania and Rwanda had also both said \u2018no\u2019 in the last couple of years.<\/p>\n<p>Luckily for us there\u2019s a whole community covering the court \u2013 academics researching, lawyers monitoring , human rights NGOs lobbying! So we asked <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/MPlagis\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Misha Plagis<\/a> \u2013 Researcher at the <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/TMCAsser\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Asser Institute <\/a>and Associate Editor at the <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/acthpr_monitor\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">ACtHPR blog<\/a> \u2013 along with <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/AliceBanens\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Alice Banens<\/a> \u2013 Legal advisor at <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/amnesty\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Amnesty<\/a>, based in Senegal \u2013 to chat with us online.<\/p>\n<p>Also Misha suggested the brilliant Chimamanda Ngozie Adichie\u2019s novel <a href=\"https:\/\/www.chimamanda.com\/book\/half-of-a-yellow-sun\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Half of a Yellow Sun<\/a>, to remind us what it\u2019s really like to live in lockdown, as they did during the Biafra crisis and civil war in Nigeria. While Alice is looking forward to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt7322210\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">The Eddy<\/a> and all of us have enjoyed <a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt11823076\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Tiger King<\/a>.<\/p>\n<figure><img decoding=\"async\" title=\"Video live meeting at Asymmetrical Haircuts\" src=\"media\/African-Court_AH-zoom-meeting.jpg\" alt=\"Video live meeting at Asymmetrical Haircuts\" \/><figcaption>Video live meeting at Asymmetrical Haircuts<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<div class=\"content-encadre\" style=\"margin-top: 30px;\">\n<p><strong><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"pull-left\" title=\"Asymmetrical Haircuts podcast\" src=\"media\/Asymmetrical-Haircuts-podcast_logo.png\" alt=\"Asymmetrical Haircuts podcast\" width=\"100\" height=\"100\" \/>ASYMMETRICAL HAIRCUTS<br \/><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>This podcast has been published as part of a partnership between JusticeInfo.net and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.asymmetricalhaircuts.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">Asymmetrical Haircuts<\/a>, a podcast on international justice produced from The Hague by journalists Janet Anderson and Stephanie van den Berg, who retain full control and independence over the contents of the podcast.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Last April Benin and Ivory Coast decided to join Tanzania and Rwanda in preventing citizens and NGOs from bringing cases directly to the African Court on Human and Peoples\u2019 Rights. Such cases represented the vast majority of those brought before the court since it started to function in 2004. Only six states will now still [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":64,"featured_media":63694,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[569],"tags":[],"ji_location":[2075],"class_list":["post-44324","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-podcast","ji_location-africa"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v25.3.1 (Yoast SEO v25.3.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The shrinking African court - JusticeInfo.net<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/en\/44324-the-shrinking-african-court.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The shrinking African court\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Last April Benin and Ivory Coast decided to join Tanzania and Rwanda in preventing citizens and NGOs from bringing cases directly to the African Court on Human and Peoples\u2019 Rights. Such cases represented the vast majority of those brought before the court since it started to function in 2004. Only six states will now still [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/en\/44324-the-shrinking-african-court.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"JusticeInfo.net\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/JusticeInfo\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-05-19T06:43:37+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/fb7bb1c9c86da44b86daa6f493b0bd94.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"900\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Asymmetrical Haircuts\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@justiceinfonet\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@justiceinfonet\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Asymmetrical Haircuts\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"NewsArticle\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/en\/44324-the-shrinking-african-court.html#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/en\/44324-the-shrinking-african-court.html\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"solivri\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/6e53cba1629e2e66f3fc1821d3091865\"},\"headline\":\"The shrinking African court\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-05-19T06:43:37+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/en\/44324-the-shrinking-african-court.html\"},\"wordCount\":480,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/en\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/en\/44324-the-shrinking-african-court.html#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/fb7bb1c9c86da44b86daa6f493b0bd94.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Podcasts\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/en\/44324-the-shrinking-african-court.html#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/en\/44324-the-shrinking-african-court.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/en\/44324-the-shrinking-african-court.html\",\"name\":\"The shrinking African court - 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