required to exhaust local judicial remedies in accordance with the laws of the
country concerned. The laws of the country include laws that govern
procedural matters. However, the requirement of exhaustion of local remedies
is not an absolute rule, it has exceptions put in place to ensure that
complainants will not be hindered from bringing potential human rights
violations before the Commission as a result of procedural impediments
emanating from unjust laws or practices. The requirement by the Respondent
State that perpetrators of the alleged violations had not been identified and
there were no descriptions of the crimes related to the attack by the Egyptian
Security Forces, thus leading to the dismissal of the case is clearly a procedural
impediment.
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83.
Furthermore, the Respondent State in its submissions has not shown that it has
taken any measures to investigate the matter and bring those responsible to
justice. The Commission has stated that where there is a crime that should be
investigated and prosecuted by the State on its own initiative, the State has the
obligation to move the criminal process forward. The normal requirements of
exhaustion of domestic remedies do not apply when it is up to the State to
investigate the facts and bring the accused persons to court in accordance with
both domestic and international fair trial standards, and the state fails to take
the required steps.25
84.
The Commission is of the view that the minimum that the State could have
done was to take active steps to investigate the allegations, especially as the
allegations of assault were levied against the police. It is not in dispute that
those responsible for assaulting the protesters were identified as police officers;
an internal investigation could have been carried out into which police unit
participated in the moving of the protestors, and under whose operational
control. The lack of internal investigation demonstrates a lack of meaningful
attempt to investigate and provide redress in this case.
85.
In such circumstances, the Commission finds that domestic remedies are either
not accessible or effective to redress the violations alleged.
Article 19 v Eritrea the Commission held that “the fact that the State of Eritrea has not taken any action
means that domestic remedies are either not available or if they are, not effective or sufficient to redress
the violations alleged”.
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