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SUMMARY OF FACTS
1. The Secretariat of the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights
(the Commission) received a Communication on 2 May 2005 from the above NGOs,
which was submitted in accordance with the provisions of Article 55 of the
African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights (the African Charter).
2. The Communication is submitted against the Republic of Senegal (State
Party [FN1] to the African Charter and hereinafter referred to as Senegal)
and alleges that legislation enacted by the Government of Senegal violates
the Government's obligations under the African Charter.
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[FN1] Senegal ratified the African Charter on 13 August 1982
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3. On 7 January 2005, the Senegalese Parliament adopted the "Ezzan" law. In
Article 1, this law grants a complete amnesty for all crimes committed, in
Senegal and abroad, relating to the general or local elections or committed
with political motivations between 1 January 1983 and 31 December 2004,
whether the authors have been judged or not.
4. Article 2 of the law was found unconstitutional by the Constitutional
Court on 12 February 2005 and grants a similar amnesty for all crimes
committed in relation to the death of Mr. Babacar Seye, judge of the
Constitutional Court.
THE COMPLAINT
5. The Communication alleges that the adoption of the "Ezzan" law violates
Article 7.1(a) of the African Charter.
6. The complainants request that the African Commission examine the effects
of this legislation and determine whether it is in conformity with the
obligations assumed by the State under the Charter.
THE PROCEDURE
7. The Secretariat registered the complaint as Communication 304/05-FIDH,
Organisation Nationale des Droits de l'Homme (ONDH) AND Rencontre Africaine
pour la Defense des Droits de l'Homme (RADDHO) / Senegal. By letter ACHPR/COMM/304/05/SEN/IH
of 4 October 2005, the Secretariat of the African Commission acknowledged
receipt of the Communication to the complainants and stated that it would be
put on the African Commission's agenda for prima facie consideration at its
38th Ordinary Session, scheduled from 21st November to 5th December 2005 in
Banjul, The Gambia.
8. At its 38th Ordinary Session held from 21 November to 05 December 2005,
in Banjul, The Gambia, the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights
considered the communication and decided to be seized thereof.
9. By letter ACHPR /COMM/304/05/SEN/IH of 15 December 2005, the Commission
kindly asked the parties if they could forward their arguments on
admissibility in accordance with Article 56 of the African Charter within
three (3) months from the date of this notification.
10. By letter ACHPR/COMM/304/05/SEN/IH of April 4th the Secretariat of the
Commission reminded the parties its letter of the 15th of December and
kindly asked the parties to submit their arguments on the admissibility.
11. On the 10th April 2006, the Secretariat acknowledged receipt of the
Respondent State's correspondence transmitting its arguments on
admissibility of Communication 304/05 FIDH & Others against the State of
Senegal.
12. At its 39th Ordinary Session which was held from 11th to 25th May 2006
in Banjul, The Gambia, the African Commission considered Communication
304/05 FIDH and others against the State of Senegal and intended to take a
decision on the admissibility of the Complaint at its 40th Ordinary Session
so as to allow the Complainants time to submit their comments on
admissibility.
13. By letter dated 17th July 2006, the Secretariat of the Commission
informed the Parties of this decision of the 39th Session and requested the
Complainants to convey their comments on the admissibility of this
Communication not later than the 30th September 2006, to enable the
Commission make a pronouncement thereon during its 40th Ordinary Session
scheduled for the 15th to 29th November 2006.
14. On the 10th October 2006, the Secretariat of the Commission received the
comments from the Complainants on the admissibility of Communication 304/05.
LAW
ADMISSIBILITY
ARGUMENTS OF THE COMPLAINANTS
15. The FIDH and its member organizations in Senegal, in their request to
institute proceedings, claim that their Communication is being brought
against a State Party to the African Charter by NGOs which have Observer
Status with the African Commission and that it is alleging the violation of
a provision of the Charter, specifically Article 7 (1) which stipulates
that:
"Every individual shall have the right to have his cause heard. This right
includes:
The right to appeal to the competent national organs against acts violating
his fundamental rights as recognized and guaranteed by Conventions, Laws,
Regulations and Customs in force;"
16. The Complainants also claim that local remedies have been exhausted
since the Constitutional Council which had been seized by some Members of
the National Assembly had declared that the Law in question was in
conformity with the Constitution with the exception of Article 2 which had
been ruled unconstitutional by the Council. The Complainants recall that
under the terms of the Senegalese Constitution, the decision of the
Constitutional Council is "the last recourse".
17. The Complainants further specify that their challenge of the Law in
question has not been brought before any other international judicial or
quasi judicial body.
ARGUMENTS OF THE STATE
18. The State claims first of all that its statement of defense on
admissibility submitted after the three months deadline extension granted by
the Commission is admissible so long as the Commission has not arrived at a
decision on admissibility, especially where the Rules of Procedure of the
Commission do not provide for any sanction of a procedural nature in case of
late submission of a statement.
19. The State then emphasizes that a communication submitted in accordance
with the provisions of Article 55 of the Charter should be based on verified
facts that have caused damage, with real identifiable victims thereby making
possible the exhaustion of local remedies. As far as the State is concerned,
the Communication submitted by the complainants is based on potential, even
hypothetical violations since neither the authors of the communication, nor
the Members of Parliament who had brought the case before the Constitutional
Council were victims and that their action could hardly be interpreted as an
attempt to exhaust local remedies.
20. The Senegalese State is also of the view that the communication is
incompatible with the Charter in that the complainants made reference either
to cases which have been conclusively dealt with by the law courts, or to
events which, having taken place in 1993, fell under the hammer of the
decennial prescription well before the promulgation of the law being
challenged.
21. According to the State which, for this purpose, is basing its argument
on the decision of the Constitutional Council on case No. 1-C-2005 of 12th
February 2005, the provisions of the Law No. 2005-05 of 17th February 2005
are clear, without ambiguity and do not at all intend to prohibit recourse
to the competent Courts. As far as the State is concerned, by seizing the
Commission, the complainants have no other intention than to have the
Commission interpret the provisions of a domestic law, competence which, in
the State's view, the Commission does not have.
22. The above-mentioned decision by the Constitutional Council had been made
on the appeal submitted by Members of Parliament after adoption of the law
by the National Assembly and prior to its promulgation by the President of
the Republic. The Members of Parliament had requested the Constitutional
Council to declare Articles 1, 2, 4 para. 2 and 10 of the law in question as
being in conflict with some provisions of the Constitution, notably the
preamble and Articles 1, 67, 76 and 88, as well as with some provisions of
the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the African Charter on Human
and Peoples' Rights. Whilst it ruled that Article 2 of the law in question
was in conflict with the Constitution, the Constitutional Council declared
itself incompetent to pronounce on the conformity of the said law with the
Treaties ratified by Senegal. The Council considered that:
"�Article 74 of the Constitution grants the Constitutional Council
competence to pronounce solely on the conformity to the Constitution, of
laws referred to it for consideration;
�under the terms of Article 98 of the Constitution, "the Conventions or
Agreements lawfully ratified or approved have, from their date of
publication, competence higher than that of the laws, subject to, for each
Convention or Treaty, its application by the other Party"; that these
provisions neither prescribe nor entail the checking of the conventionality
of the laws within the framework of pronouncement on the conformity of laws
with the Constitution as provided for in Article 74 of the said
Constitution;
�that it is beyond the competence of the Constitutional Council to assess
the conformity of the law with the provisions of an international Convention
or Treaty;"
23. The Respondent State considers further that to claim, as the
complainants have done, "that in promulgating the amnesty law "Ezzan" passed
by National Representation on the 4th January 2005, the President of the
Republic of Senegal had allowed the entry into force of a law which violates
the above mentioned Article (of the Charter)" is insulting to the State of
Senegal and to its democratic institutions.
24. In its oral submission before the Commission during the 40th Session,
the Respondent State had re-affirmed that the law as promulgated by the
President of the Republic after verification of its conformity with the
Constitution had not been subjected to any jurisdictional appeal, and the
absence of real and identifiable victims makes such an appeal improbable.
The State also recalled that the ruling of the Constitutional Council does
not prevent future victims from seizing the competent courts to demand
redress for any damage they may have suffered.
25. Furthermore, the State clarified the procedure to be adopted before the
Constitutional Council. The Council can be seized through action (before the
promulgation of a law) and by exception (after the promulgation of a law).
Through action, only the President of the Republic and one tenth of the
Members of the National Assembly can challenge a law adopted by the National
Assembly before the Constitutional Council. Through exception, any citizen,
during a proceedings to which he is a party before the National Council or
the Appeals Court, can challenge the unconstitutionality of a law. In such
as case, the National Council or the Appeals Court defers the judgment and
seizes the Constitutional Council which first of all has to rule on the
constitutionality of the said law.
26. The Respondent State further withdrew its submission on the use of
insulting language by the complainants.
27. The State of Senegal prays the African Commission on Human and Peoples'
Rights to declare Communication 304/05 inadmissible.
COMMENTS BY THE COMPLAINANTS ON THE MEMORANDUM OF THE STATE ON ADMISSIBILITY
28. The complainant NGOs first of all challenge the admissibility of the
submission of the State on the grounds that it had not been submitted within
the three months deadline given to the State by the Commission.
29. The complainants then go on to refute, one by one, the arguments of
inadmissibility raised by the Respondent State. Thus, with regard to the
compatibility with the Charter, they contend, using the jurisprudence of the
African Commission as basis, notably its decision on communication 245/2002
Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum vs. Zimbabwe, that to be compatible with the
Charter, the communication has only got to invoke the provisions of the law
which are presumed to have been violated, and that from then on it is "up to
the African Commission, after having considered all the facts at its
disposal, to make a ruling on the rights which have been violated and to
recommend the appropriate remedy to restitute the rights of the
complainant". According to them, communication 304/05 attempts to denounce
the impunity sanctioned by the amnesty law known as "Ezzan" by making it
impossible for the perpetrators of crimes to be brought to justice in
blatant violation of Article 7.1.a of the Charter.
30. The complainants also assert that the simple fact of declaring that a
State Party has violated a provision of the Charter can hardly constitute,
on its own, an "insulting" remark, and that "to admit that such an
allegation is insulting would result in challenging the principle itself of
resorting to the Commission for a remedy".
31. The complainant also denies having based its Communication on "potential
or hypothetical" facts, or limiting itself "to simple declarations by
re-echoing the artificial opinions of the Political Opposition", as is being
claimed by the State in its submission. The facts which form the basis of
the communication, it contends, have been verified. For the complainant
NGOs, both the FIDH and its affiliates in Senegal and other international
human rights protection institutions such as the United Nations Human Rights
Commission, had previously denounced the human rights violations committed
in the context of the electoral process in Senegal.
32. With regard to the identification of the victims, the complainant NGOs
recall that Article 56, paragraph 1 of the Charter simply requires that the
identity of the authors of a communication be mentioned. They base their
argument on the position of the Commission in its decision on communications
54/91, 61/91, 98/93, 164/97 to 196/97, 210/98 Malawi African Association,
Amnesty International, Mme Sarr Diop, InterAfrican Human Rights Union and
RADDHO, Widows and Entitled Persons Association, Mauritanian Human Rights
Association vs. Mauritania in which case the Commission had felt that the "authors do not necessarily have to be the victims or members of their
family". The NGOs also recall in their favour the decision of the Commission
according to which Article 56, paragraph 1 does not require that the names "of all the victims of the alleged violations" be indicated (Communication
159/96 InterAfrican Human Rights Union, International Federation of Human
Rights Leagues, African Human Rights Group, National Human Rights
Organization in Senegal and the Malian Human Rights Association vs. Angola).
33. Concerning the exhaustion of local remedies, the complainants recall
that according to the terms of the Constitution of the Republic of Senegal,
the International Conventions have a supra-legislative value, that some of
them, the African Charter included, having been cited in the preamble, even
form an integral part of this constitutionality, and that the Constitutional
Council is the sole competent body to rule on the constitutionality of a
law. They also recall that the decisions of the Constitutional Council
cannot be appealed and that only the President of the Republic, one tenth of
the Members of the National Assembly, the National Council or the Court of
Appeal are empowered, when an exception of unconstitutionality is brought
before them, to seize the Constitutional Council. They therefore conclude
that the decision of the Constitutional Council declaring that the disputed
law is in conformity with the Constitution makes it impossible for anybody
to challenge this law before the national courts.
34. The complainant NGOs recall in conclusion that their communication had
been submitted within a reasonable time frame and that they had not
instituted any other international legal proceedings.
35. In their oral submission before the African Commission during the 40th
Session, the complainants recalled that the communication had not been
drafted in abusive or insulting language. Furthermore, they re-affirm that
the Constitutional Council had already made a ruling on the law in question,
and that the decision of the Constitutional Council could not be subjected
to any appeal. The complainants further contended that if remedies of a
civil nature are guaranteed by the law being challenged, the amnesty law
makes it impossible for any kind of criminal punishment to be meted out
against the perpetrators of crimes, thereby supporting impunity in Senegal.
36. The Complainants invite the Commission to declare the Communication
admissible.
DECISION OF THE COMMISSION
37. The admissibility of communications presented in conformity with the
terms of Article 55 of the Charter is governed by Article 56 of the African
Charter which stipulates that:
"The Communications referred to in Article 55 received by the Commission and
pertaining to human and peoples' rights should necessarily, to be
considered, fulfill the following conditions:
Indicate the identity of the author even if the latter requests the
Commission to maintain his/her anonymity;
Should be compatible with the Charter of the Organization of African Unity
or with the present Charter;
Should not contain language which is abusive or insulting towards the
implicated State, its institutions or the OAU;
Should not limit itself to gathering only the information broadcast by the
mass media;
Should be subsequent to the exhaustion of local remedies, if any, unless it
is clear to the Commission that the procedure of these remedies is unduly
prolonged;
Should be submitted within a reasonable time frame starting from the
exhaustion of local remedies or from the date stipulated by the Commission
as being the beginning of the deadline to its own seizure.
Should not pertain to cases which have been settled in conformity with
either the principles of the Charter of the United Nations or the Charter of
the Organization of African Unity or the provisions of this Charter".
38. The Commission recalls that the conditions outlined in Article 56 are
cumulative and should all be adequately fulfilled for a communication
submitted in conformity with the terms of Article 55 to be admissible.
Consequently, non-respect of any one of these conditions is liable to render
a communication inadmissible.
39. In this particular case, most of the conditions laid down by Article 56
appear, prima facie to have been respected by the authors of Communication
304/05: The Communication is not anonymous; it pleads the violation of a
provision of the Charter; it is not exclusively based on information
broadcast by the mass media; it is not the object of any international
proceedings before another judicial or quasi- judicial body; it was
submitted within a reasonable time frame, and the Commission did not find
any abusive or insulting language in it. The only condition which really
poses a problem for both parties is Article 56(5) of the Charter which is
the question of exhaustion of local remedies.
40. Before considering the condition relating to the exhaustion of local
remedies, the Commission would like to address the matter of the identity of
victims raised by the Respondent State in its argument. The Commission
recalls, in this context, that the African Charter does not call for the
identification of the victims of a Communication. According to the terms of
Article 56(1), only the identification of the author or authors of the
Communication is required. Besides it is not necessary for the author or
authors to be present or the victims even where some link between the author
and the victim exists. That had in fact been confirmed by the practice of
the African Commission [FN2]. The flexibility of Article 56 of the African
Charter, which differs in this from the other international human rights
protection instruments, is fully justified in the African context and
"reflects sensitivity of the practical difficulties which individuals can be
faced with in the countries where human rights are violated".[FN2]
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[FN2] See notably the decision on communications 54/91, 61/91, 98/93, 164/97
to 196/97, 210/98 Malawi African Association and Others v Mauritania [(2000)
AHRLR 149 (ACHPR 2000)].
[FN3] As above, para 78
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41. Concerning the exhaustion of local remedies, according to the provisions
of Article 56(5):
"The Communications referred to in Article 55 received by the Commission and
relative to human and peoples' rights should, necessarily, to be considered,
fulfill the following conditions:
"�.Be sent after exhausting local remedies, if any, unless it is obvious to
the Commission that the procedure of these remedies is unduly prolonged."
42. It does not at all show from the facts at the disposal of the Commission
that efforts had been made by the authors of the communication to exhaust
the local remedies available against Law No. 2005-05 of 17th February 2005.
The remedy used by some Members of the National Assembly cannot constitute,
in the view of the Commission, an attempt to exhaust local remedies for two
main reasons: First of all, this recourse had been initiated on the 12th and
13th January 2005 and the ruling of the Constitutional Council had been made
on the 12th February 2005, that is to say before the entry into force of Law
No. 2005-05 of 17th February 2005. The Commission is of the view that a law
which has not yet entered into force cannot violate any right which is
protected by the Charter.
43. Then, it would appear from the facts as presented by the two Parties,
from the appeal by the Parliamentarians and from the ruling of the
Constitutional Council which sanctioned it, that the victims had the
opportunity to seize the competent Senegalese Courts or even the
Constitutional Council through the method of challenge of constitutionality.
The Commission observes that instead of following this procedure, the
Complainants approached it (the Commission) directly.
44. If the Parties agree to recognize that the decisions of the
Constitutional Council cannot be appealed, there is no evidence to show that
where the Constitutional Council declares itself incompetent to deal with a
given issue (here it relates to the verification of the conformity of a law
with a Convention, in this case the African Charter), no other legal body in
Senegal is competent on the matter. The Commission is of the view that the
local remedies to which Article 56(5) makes reference, cannot be limited to
penal remedies. They include all the legal remedies, whether civil, penal or
administrative.
45. On the basis of all of the above arguments, the Commission concludes
that the complainants did not exhaust all the local remedies.
For this reason, the Commission declares the communication inadmissible.
Done at the 40th Ordinary Session of the African Commission held in Banjul,
The Gambia, from 15 - 29 November, 2006 |
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