ACTING RIGHTS CHIEF WELCOMES ENTRY INTO FORCE OF PROTOCOL ESTABLISHING AFRICAN RIGHTS COURT

26 January 2004



United Nations acting High Commissioner for Human Rights Bertrand Ramcharan today welcomed the entry into force on 25 January of the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights establishing an African human-rights court.

The acting High Commissioner called the creation of the African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights "another major advance towards the international rule of law and in the fight against impunity for gross violations of human rights". "I congratulate all of Africa and the African Union on this historic achievement and strongly urge the speedy ratification of the Protocol by all African States", he said.

Mr. Ramcharan added that his Office would continue to cooperate with the African human-rights system through national, sub-regional and regional programmes and devote special attention to supporting the effective functioning of the Court.

The Protocol establishing the Court came into force 30 days after it was ratified by the Union of Comoros, the fifteenth member of the African Union to do so. The other State parties to the Protocol are Algeria, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Côte d'Ivoire, Gambia, Lesotho, Libya, Mali, Mauritius, Rwanda, Senegal, South Africa, Togo and Uganda.