"State Parties to this Charter shall put in place, a special treatment for pregnant women and
mothers of infants and minors who have been indicted or found guilty of a penal offence, and shall
ensure particularly that:
1. A sentence other than jail term shall be given, in all cases, against pregnant women;
2. Measures aiming to replace the imprisonment of pregnant women shall be taken and promoted;
3. Specialised Institutions shall be established, wherein the detention of such mothers shall be
carried out;
4. All measures shall be put in place to forbid the imprisonment of a mother and her child;
5. All measures shall be put in place to forbid that a death sentence be passed against such
mothers;
6. The prison system shall essentially aim at reforming, reintegrating the mother into her family and
rehabilitating her into the society."
105. However, the Court understands that the provisions cited above do not absolutely debar the States
from detaining pregnant women and nursing mothers. It is true that it is the Charter itself which brings the
States under the obligation of "creating special institutions for taking care of the detention of mothers". This
confirms the fact that there is no absolute prohibition on deprivation of freedom in such an instance.
106. What the States are bound by, is that they are under an obligation to make a preference for alternative
measures, as regards the imprisonment of pregnant women where this is possible, and to create special
institutions for the detention of pregnant women and nursing mothers.
107. As emphasised by Habib Gherari in Etudes Internationales, vol.22, No 4, 1991, pp. 735- 751, with
regard to the rights that are guaranteed by the African Charter,
"In order for the African Child or the Child who is on the African continent to truly enjoy the
generality of these rights, two conditions must be met. On the one hand, and in the majority of
cases, the State must make adequate Regulations and necessary concrete Measures (Art 1(1) of the
Charter); indeed, if civil rights and fundamental liberties have, as we all know, direct applicability, it
is not the same for such rights that are highly social in nature, which, except for few, like Primary
Education, which is free and obligatory in nature (Art 11.3a), require great and constant effort. And
this is well emphasised in the Charter, their enforcement is highly dependent on the availability of
resources."
108. In the instant case, there is no evidence that the Defendant State makes provision for conditions which
enable her to accord greater attention to the non deprivation of the Applicant's freedom, or her
incarceration in a special prison, without compromising, all the same, the rationale behind the preventive
detention.
109. Whatever the case may be, the infant did not remain in the company of his mother in the prison house.
Besides, an arrangement for enabling visitors to come on visits, may minimise and attenuate the effects
related to the separation of the mother from the child.
Consequently
110. Whereas the publication of information by the media on the investigation and preventive detention of
the Applicants do not constitute a violation of the principle of presumption of innocence, by the State of
Côte d'Ivoire, such as to trample on the honour and reputation of the Applicants;
111. Whereas the preventive detention of the Applicants is not arbitrary, since it arose from a judicial
procedure;
112 Whereas the circumstances of the instant case do not permit to adjudge that the time-limit for the
conduct of the proceedings, by means of which the Applicants were detained, is unreasonable;
113. Whereas the detention of the Applicant OBODJI, nee HOUSSOU Amelan Roselyne, does not
constitute a violation by the State of Côte d'Ivoire, of her rights as a pregnant woman and the rights of her
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