It is well known that contemporary international law is influenced, at least as for the content of its norms, by a great sensitiveness for the topic of human rights. As a consequence, the doctrine gives nowadays great importance to the problems linked to human rights law. However, often unconsciously, the majority of authors assumes as a matter of fact that human rights law is dominated by a sort of ‘western’ paradigm. So, the doctrine has already written a lot on the treaties, resolutions and mechanisms operating under the aegis of the United Nations. Similarly, on a regional level, the European Human Rights System has always been at the core of a huge number of scientific analysis, while the American Human Rights System has recently begun to stimulate the doctrine. As for the African Human Rights System, several authors have dealt with some of its aspects, even if a complete and critical monograph on this topic has never been published. This book examines the whole African Human Rights System, with special focus on the peculiarities of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, both as for its content and as for its structure. This book also dwells on the African Commission and on the African Court, respectively the quasi-jurisdictional organ and the jurisdictional organ in charge of controlling the respect of the African Charter by the African States. Particular attention is given to the later developments concerning the African Court, which is going to be merged with the Court of Justice of the African Union in the new single African Court of Justice and Human Rights. Then, the 2014 Malabo Protocol is assessed in order to understand the impact on the regional human rights system of the project to add a new competence in the field of criminal international law to the aforementioned single African Court. The main aim of the book is to evaluate the efficiency of the international protection of human rights in the African continent. This aim is reached only to a certain extant according to a comparative analysis with the other two regional systems, which are considered only when necessary. In fact, they have not to be considered as ideal aspirations to which the African Human Rights System has the ambition to resemble. The efficiency of the African Human Rights System is better examined in the light of the cultural, economical, political and social background of the African continent.
