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African Commission on
Human and Peoples' Rights
Human Rights our
Collective Responsibility
61. The Complainants have also demonstrated the difficulty that the Victims face if
they tried to enforce constitutional provisions that guarantee a right to selfdetermination as a means of resolving the issues at stake. In the face of the
evidence before it, the Commission agrees that if at all it exists, the legal
framework to sustain the Victims' claims in the present Communication is
uncertain. The existence of a national implementation law that is specifically
tailored to implement the constitutional provisions in favour of the pastoralist is
not doubtful. The Respondent State has also failed to show how the African
Charter can be applicable in its national courts. Accordingly, the Commission
finds that the legal framework to sustain the Victims' claim in the Respondent
State is unclear and uncertain.
62. The Commission also needs to determine whether the institutional framework
necessary for the application of the relevant laws exists in the Respondent State.
While the Complainants allege that effective and sufficient local remedies are
unavailable, the Respondent State asserts that both its National Human Rights
Commission and its courts are effective institutions available to the Victims.
63. As the Commission has previously held, the term "local remedies II as used in the
African Charter refers to an internal remedy of a judicial nature.l? This is
consistent with the Commission's position that local remedies that a Complainant
is expected to exhaust under Article 56(5) of the African Charter should be
remedies that are effective to the extent that they offer a prospect of success and
are sufficient to the extent that are capable of rectifying the alleged violation.'!
64. The Commission notes that although it asserts that the EHRC has powers to
receive and investigate complaints alleging human rights violation, the
Respondent State has not indicated that the decisions of the EHRC are binding.
Where the local remedy held out by a State Party is one that lacks powers that
bind the government and its agencies, such a remedy falls short of the standard
of remedies that international law requires a Complainant to exhaust.F The
Commission is therefore, of the view that a petition to the Respondent State's
EHRC is not a judicial remedy and does not hold the promise of an effective and
sufficient remedy. The Complainants are accordingly not under an obligation to
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