th 42. By Note Verbale and letter dated 10 February 2007, the Respondent State and the Complainant were respectively notified that the African Commission had deferred the communication, as it was th unable to consider the said communication at its 40 Ordinary Session because of lack of time. Both the Complainant and the Respondent State were informed that the communication would be considered at the 41st Ordinary Session of the African Commission. Law Admissibility 43. The current communication is submitted pursuant to Article 55, of the African Charter which allows the African Commission to receive and consider communications, other than from States Parties. Article 56 of the African Charter provides that the admissibility of a communication submitted 1 pursuant to Article 55 is subject to seven conditions. The African Commission has stressed that the conditions laid down in Article 56 are conjunctive, meaning that if any one of them is absent, the 2 communication will be declared inadmissible. 44. The parties to the present communication seem to agree that six of the conditions set out in Article 56 have been met. They are however in dispute over the application of one of the conditions – Article 56.5, which provides that communications relating to human and peoples’ rights referred to in Article 55, received by the African Commission shall be considered if they“are sent after the exhaustion of local remedies, if any, unless it is obvious that this procedure is unduly prolonged”. 45. The exhaustion of local remedies rule is a principle under international law of permitting States to solve their internal problems in accordance with their own constitutional procedures before accepted international mechanisms can be invoked. The particular State is thus enabled to have an opportunity to redress the wrong that has occurred there within its own legal order. It is a well established rule of customary international law that before international proceedings are instituted, the various remedies provided by the State should have been exhausted. 46. The African Commission has held in previous communications that for local remedies to be exhausted, they must be available, effective and sufficient. In communication Nos 147/95 and 149/96, the African Commission held that a remedy is considered available if the Complainant can pursue it without impediment, it is deemed effective if it offers a prospect of success, and it is found sufficient if 3 it is capable of redressing the complaint. 47. In terms of Article 56.5, therefore, the law on exhaustion of domestic remedies presupposes: 1. 2. 3. the existence of domestic procedures for dealing with the claim; the justiciability or otherwise, domestically, of the subject-matter of the complaint; the existence under the municipal legal order of provisions for redress of the type of wrong being complained of; and 4. available effective local remedies, that is, remedies sufficient or capable of redressing the wrong complained of. 48. The second part of Article 56.5 which is the subject of contention between the parties provides that a communication shall be considered if they are sent after the exhaustion of local remedies “…if any, unless it is obvious that this procedure is unduly prolonged”. It follows therefore that the local remedies rule is not rigid. It does not apply if: 1. 2. 3. 4. local remedies are inexistent; local remedies are unduly and unreasonably prolonged; recourse to local remedies is made impossible; from the face of the complaint there is no justice or there are no local remedies to exhaust, for example, where the judiciary is under the control of the executive organ responsible for the illegal act; and