Communication 341/07 - Equality Now vEthiopia
Woineshet Zebene Negash suffered at the hand of private individuals constitutes
violations of her rights guaranteed under its Constitution and international human
rights instruments including the Charter to which it is a party.
112. The Respondent State does not also deny that the investigating police officers and
the zonal prosecutor failed to diligently investigate the acts, properly identify the
perpetrators, prosecute them, and secure their punishment as part of the remedies
for the criminal violations Ms Negash suffered. Indeed the Respondent State
confirms the failure of its agents by stating that it disciplined the prosecutor and
removed the judge who discharged the convicts for their respective misconduct. It
also provided personal remedies to the victim in the form of a job and a house in
accordance with a settlement agreement reached with Ethiopian Women Lawyers
Association. It would appear that by highlighting these measures, the Respondent
State seeks to be absolved from international responsibility on the ground that it
has remedied the violations.
113.
In the circumstances, it is necessary to establish the nature and extent of the
Respondent State's responsibility and whether the measures it has taken absolve it
from responsibility.
114. In that regard, aconvenient starting point is Article 1of the Charter which obligates
State Parties to recognise and give effect to the rights, freedoms and duties
guaranteed under the Charter. The twin obligations to recognise and give effect to the
rights and freedoms under the Charter generate at least four duties on the part of
the State: the duties to respect, protect, promote and fulfil the rights and freedoms
under the Charter.7 These duties are concomitant to all the rights and freedoms
under the Charter. In other words, the State is obligated to recognise and give effect
to the rights and freedoms by respecting, protecting, promoting, and fulfilling them
at the domestic level. Accordingly, a State incurs international responsibility if it
fails to meet the demands of these duties.
115. In the present Communication, the primary violations were committed by private
citizens who twice abducted the victim and one of them raped her and forced her to
sign a purported marriage contract while she was kept captive. These acts
constitute violations of a range of rights guaranteed under the Charter. Article 6 of
the Charter provides for two separate but inextricably linked rights: the right to
liberty, and the right to security of the person. At the core of the right to liberty is
the guarantee that no one should be deprived of their freedom to go or not to go
anywhere as they will, so long as it lies in their power and means to do so.
Although the freedom reserved to the person is open, it is not absolute. It can be
Communication 155/96. Social and Economic Rights Action Centre and the Centrefor Economic and Social Ri
v Nigeria (SERAC Case) (2000) ACHPR para. 44