This paper discusses the basic features of the proposed criminal bench of African Court of Justice and Human Rights. The court has general affair section, human rights section and criminal section. It has the mandate to interpret and apply the AU constitutive act together with other treaties and all subsidiary legal instruments. The court is composed of four organs. Decision of the court is binding on the parties to a dispute. The AU adoption of the protocols of the statute of the court underscores that it is the first time that head of state and governments give immunity in international criminal law. This is against one of the founding principles on which the AU, through its constitutive act is apparently based on “condemnation and rejection of impunity”. The criminal section of the court is proposed as a reaction to the perceived partiality in the International Criminal Court. The two courts will exercise the same subject matter jurisdiction at least in relation to Rome statute crimes committed in states which have ratified both the Malabo protocol and the Rome statute.