The African Human Rights System: An Overview of the Admissibility of NGOS Applications Before the African Court

Rights are sacrosanct and one of the most cardinal functions/objectives of the African Union (AU), being a regional organization, is the protection of rights of citizens of member states. The African Court on Human and People\u27s Rights is the channel through which the African Union entertains and determines complaints of human rights in frin gements/abuses within the region. Among other categories of applicants, relevant NGOs can invoke the jurisdiction of the Court upon satisfaction requisite pre-conditions. Adopting a doctrinal approach, this paper seeks to shed light on the extent of the admissibility of applications by NGOs before the Court. This paper however finds that a number of genuine cases of human rights abuses risk being shut out within the present context. This paper concludes that the preconditions NGO applications are subjected to, are restrictive /limi ted. This paper therefore recommends that such conditions be reconsidered to allow a wider NGO access to the Court