The composition of the bench of the African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights raises a number of questions when a judge is sitting on a case involving his or her State. The Ouagadougou Protocol stipulates that if a judge holds the nationality of a State party to a case, he shall recuse himself. However, African legislators have not expressly defined the validity of this principle.This study analyses the ration legis of article 11 of the Protocol to the African Charter on Human Rights, making a comparative study with the European human rights model.