Post-colonial Africa has been caught in military coups and civil wars. Incumbent leaders have refused to step down and hand over power post-elections or amended the constitution to not get voted out of power. In this context, three main challenges to democracy in Africa are military coups, lack of free and fair elections and illegal constitutional amendments to entrench de facto monarchy. To combat this, the Malabo Protocol, which introduces criminal jurisdiction of the African Court of Justice and Human Rights, criminalises unconstitutional change of government (‘UCG’). The article outlines the progression of UCG from a violation of the democracy and rule of law principles under the African Charter to a prosecutable crime under the Malabo Protocol and analyses the difficulties an actual prosecution will face on account of vague definition, lack of international recognition and the major roadblock due to Heads of State immunity under the Protocol.

后殖民时代的非洲陷入军事政变和内战。现任领导人拒绝在选举后下台并移交权力，也拒绝修改宪法以免被投票失去权力。在此背景下，非洲民主面临的三大挑战是军事政变、缺乏自由公正的选举以及为巩固事实上的君主制而进行的非法宪法修正案。为了解决这个问题，引入了非洲法院和人权法院刑事管辖权的马拉博议定书将违宪的政府变更 (' UCG ')定为刑事犯罪。文章概述了UCG的进展 从违反《非洲宪章》下的民主和法治原则到《马拉博议定书》下的可起诉罪行，并分析了实际起诉将面临的困难，因为定义模糊、缺乏国际认可以及《议定书》规定的国家豁免。