10 - The Uneven Impact of International Human Rights Law in Africa’s Subregional Courts

Summary

Africa’s subregional courts have experienced a marked impact by international human rights law notwithstanding the fact that these courts were established primarily to support and enhance the pursuit of economic integration. This chapter argues that international human rights law has become increasingly entrenched as a substantive source of law in African subregional regimes through a combination of uncritical reception and deployment by the subregional courts relying on statements of fundamental principles contained in treaties and the acquiesce of state parties to those treaties. Analysing the practices of the East African Court of Justice and the ECOWAS Community Court of Justice as case studies, the charter demonstrates that even though the presence of international human rights law is evident in the work of Africa’s subregional courts, the impact that international rights law has made is significantly different in each regime. It is shown that the impact is more robust where the court is not constrained by jurisdictional limitations in human rights adjudication and allows standing to individuals pursuing human rights claims.