O acesso do indivíduo às instâncias de proteção do Sistema Africano de Proteção dos Direitos do Homem e dos Povos

Abstract

Th is article aims to analyze and refl ect on the individual’s access to instances of protecting African System of Protection of Human Rights and Peoples, namely, the African Commission and African Court of Human Rights and Peoples. First, we present a brief reference to the individual as subject of international law and then expounded on the instances of protection of African System Protection, analyzing, directly, the individual’s access to these instances and on citing case law. Finally, we undertook a comparative analysis of individual access to three regional systems of protection. Th rough legal dogmatics, we demonstrated that there is an individual right to demand before the Commission and African Court, however, such access does not allow the unconditional and full realization of this right, as this, the African Court can only be exercised if the Respondent has recognized the Court’s jurisdiction to appreciate individual claims, optional clause of jurisdiction, which hinders the exercise of this right, since, in practice, no violator state has an interest to recognize the Court’s competence to be sued. We also conclude that in the three regional systems of protection of human rights, the European system is more democratic, as it guarantees direct access to any person within its jurisdiction.