African Intergovernmental Organiz ations.'
e.
Accordi ng to the Commit tee, in determi ning the meaning of 'African intergovernm ental organisation', recourse should be made to Article 31 (1) of the
60.
Vienna Convention, which stipulate s that 'A treaty shall be interpreted in good
faith in accorda nce with the ordinary 1neaning to be given to the terms of the treaty
in their context and in the light of its object and purpose .'
61.
The Commit tee also asserts that in determi ning the ordinary meaning of a
treaty provision, the Court may resort to the use of dictionaries, as the African
17
Commis sion has done in the past. The Conunit tee also relies on tbe definition of
18
·African ' in the Oxford dictionary as 'relating lo Africa or connect ed to Africa',
and undeTlines that the Commit tee forms pali of the monitor ing body of the
African human rights system within the African Union and thus qualifies as
'African '. In its view, this is further supporte d by the 'African' nature of the
Commit tee in that 4 1 African States have ratified the Childre n's Charter, which is
19
its founding instrument. The Committee submits that these element s and others
are sufficien t to qualify it as '"Afi·ican"'.
With regard to the concept of 'intergovernn1ental organiz ation', the
Comm ittee submits that it bas the attribute s of such an organization as defined by
62.
Pevehou se
20
,
namely:
Majuru I Zimbabwe 308/05
See lnterlghts el al (On behalf of Marlette Sorijalean Bosch) I Botswana 240/01 (2003), Michael
Zrmbabwe layers for Human Rights &
and
(2006);
299/05
Elhlopfa
Council/
Justice
Anuak
(2005;
268/03
Nigeria
llesanml/
(2008);
Commission used the Black's Law
Associated Newspaper of Zimbabwe/Zimbabwe 284/03(2009) s11ongst other where the African
tools
Dictionary. the Oxford Advanced Dictionary and I he Longman Synonym Diclionary as mlerpretalive
17
11
18
Concise Oxford Dictionary, 1 0"' edition, 1999
hllp:/lwww.achrp.ordlnstrumenls/chlldl (accessed 29 March 2013)
20
"Pevehouse el a! intergovernmental organisations 1815-2000: (2003) 2.
17