according to which the condition set out in Article 56 of the Charter and Rule
40 of the Rules in their respective paragraph 5 on exhaustion of local remedies
“reinforces and maintains the primacy of the domestic system in the protection
of human rights vis-a-vis the Court". As such, the Commission aims at providing
States the opportunity of addressing the human rights violations committed in
their territories before an international human rights body is called upon to
determine the States’ responsibility in such violations.
4.
It is however apparent from the judgment under reference in this Separate
Opinion that the Court appropriated the theory of “bundle of rights" to dispose
of certain requirements of the obligation to exhaust local remedies.
5.
Yet, the tenets of this theory show that it was created and used in matters of
property rights, because often among economists, such rights were the same
as private property rights. The demonstration that flows from the theory has,
above
all, caused
common
ownership to evolve by highlighting the
dismemberments of property, and hence its application in matters of the rights
of indigenous peoples.
6.
It emerges from the Respondent State’s objections that the latter criticizes the
Applicants for having failed to present certain claims before the domestic court
prior to bringing the same to this Court for the first time, thereby disregarding
the
7.
requirement
of exhaustion
of local
remedies.
allegations that the thirty (30) years
unconstitutional and inappropriate, and
assistance.
sentence
that they
In
Court
response
to these
allegations,
the
This
is also
true for their
imposed on them
were not afforded
upheld
its jurisprudence
was
legal
on
constitutionality petition?, held that the local remedies concerned only ordinary
remedies, and that in the present case, the Applicants had exhausted the said
remedies.
8.
The Court further stated that legal assistance is a fundamental right of the
Applicants prosecuted for a crime and liable to be sentenced to a heavy penalty
and, therefore, that the Court of Appeal should have discussed the issue even
though the Applicant had not raised it®.
? Paragraph 35 of the Judgment
3 Paragraph 37 of the Judgment