The African Commission on Human and Peoples� Rights, meeting at its 31st Ordinary Session in Pretoria, South Africa, from 2nd to 16th May 2002 ;
Recalling that the Assembly of Heads of States and of Governments of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) adopted the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples� Rights on the Establishment of an African Court on Human and Peoples� Rights at its 19th Ordinary Session on 9 July 1998 in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso;
NOTING with satisfaction that 36 States have signed the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples� Rights on the establishment of an African Court on Human and Peoples� Rights;
CONSIDERING that only 5 States have up to now ratified the said Protocol: Burkina Faso, Gambia, Mali, Senegal and Uganda;
Recalling that 15 ratifications or accessions are necessary for the entry into force of the Protocol on the Establishment of an African Court on Human and Peoples� Rights;
URGES all the OAU Member States to ratify or accede as soon as possible to the Protocol on the Establishment of an African Court on Human and Peoples� Rights.
Done in Pretoria, South Africa 16th May 2002