Demonstrators protest in Tunisia’s capital Tunis in 2021 against President Kais Saied’s steps to tighten his grip on power.
Fethi Belaid/AFP via Getty Images
Tunisia’s democratic backslide demonstrates how autocrats can use constitutional cover to entrench authoritarianism.
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The court has lived up to its promise in most cases, issuing some progressive and ground-breaking decisions and remedies.
Judges in the courtroom prior to the the sentencing of Jean-Pierre Bemba at in the International Criminal Court in The Hague
Robin van Lonkhuijsen/EPA
The AU’s new International Criminal Law Section offers a chance for the regional body to address root causes of conflict.
African leaders at the closing of the 26th African Union Summit in Addis Ababa, in 2016.
EPA/Solan Kolli
The emergent AU law is seen as distinct and separate from international law and the domestic laws of member states.
The African Union (AU) Commission in session. The African Court on Human and People’s Rights operates under the AU mandate.
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Ghana’s Supreme Court and the African Court, which was established by a Protocol under the African Charter, have the same powers to hear and decide cases. A recent case shows why this is problematic.
A political body of the AU is second-guessing a legal body in its interpretation of the African Charter, on the basis of prejudice against LGBTI people.
REUTERS/Antony Njuguna
A dispute between the African Union’s executive and the commission responsible for overseeing human rights could weaken the protection of peoples’ rights.