The More Things Seem to Change, The More They Stay the Same: The Strained Matrix for The Protection and Enforcement of Human Rights in Africa

Institutionally, the African human rights system is in a state of flux. While the African Commission has for a long time been the only continental supervisory institution for human rights, this has since changed. The recent institutional developments in the African human rights system acknowledge the continued relevance of the African Commission in the African institutional human rights matrix. In spite of this, the
relationship between the African Commission and the emerging institutions remains largely unelaborated. This contribution focuses on the relationship between the African Commission and the African Court as well as the proposed Merged Court and attempts to deduce some of the implications that the founding instruments of these new institutions portend for the relationship with the African Commission. Focus is also
placed on the Interim Rules of Procedure of both the African Commission and the African Court in so far as they relate to the question of complementarity between the institutions.