39. Requiring the exhaustion of local remedies also ensures that the African Commission does not become a tribunal of first instance for cases for which an effective domestic remedy exists. 40. The present communication does not contain any information on domestic court actions brought by the Complainants to halt the violations alleged. However, the [African] Commission on numerous occasions brought this complaint to the attention of the government at the time but no response was made to the [African] Commission’s requests. In such cases the [African] Commission has held that in the absence of a substantive response from the Respondent State it must decide on the facts provided by the Complainants and treat them as given. (See communications 25/89, 47/90, 56/91, 100/93 World Organisation against Torture et al./Zaire [sic], communication 60/91 Constitutional Rights Project/Nigeria and communication 101/93 Civil Liberties Organisation/Nigeria). 41. The [African] Commission takes cognisance of the fact that the Federal Republic of Nigeria has incorporated the African Charter into its domestic law with the result that all the rights contained therein can be invoked in Nigerian courts including those violations alleged by the Complainants. However, the [African] Commission is aware that at the time of submitting this communication, the then Military government of Nigeria had enacted various decrees ousting the jurisdiction of the courts and thus depriving the people in Nigeria of the right to seek redress in the courts for acts of 2 government that violate their fundamental human rights . In such instances, and as in the instant communication, the [African] Commission is of the view that no adequate domestic remedies are existent (see communication 129/94 Civil Liberties Organisation/Nigeria). 42. It should also be noted that the new government in their Note Verbale referenced 127/2000 th submitted at the 28 session of the [African] Commission held in Cotonou, Benin, admitted to the violations committed then by stating, “there is no denying the fact that a lot of atrocities were and are still being committed by the oil companies in Ogoni Land and indeed in the Niger Delta area”. The [African] Commission therefore declared the communication admissible. Merits 43. The present communication alleges a concerted violation of a wide range of rights guaranteed under the African Charter. Before we venture into the inquiry whether the Government of Nigeria has violated the said rights as alleged in the complaint, it would be proper to establish what is generally expected of governments under the [African] Charter and more specifically vis-à-vis the rights themselves. 44. Internationally accepted ideas of the various obligations engendered by human rights indicate that all rights, both civil and political rights and social and economic, generate at least four levels of duties for a State that undertakes to adhere to a rights regime, namely the duty to respect, protect, promote, and fulfil these rights. These obligations universally apply to all rights and entail a combination of negative and positive duties. As a human rights instrument, the African Charter is not alien to these concepts and the order in which they are dealt with here is chosen as a matter of convenience and in no way should it imply the priority accorded to them. Each layer of obligation is 3 equally relevant to the rights in question. 45. At a primary level, the obligation to respect entails that the State should refrain from interfering in the enjoyment of all fundamental rights; it should respect right-holders, their freedoms, autonomy, 4 resources, and liberty of their action. With respect to socio economic rights, this means that the State is obliged to respect the free use of resources owned or at the disposal of the individual alone or in any form of association with others, including the household or the family, for the purpose of rightsrelated needs. And with regard to a collective group, the resources belonging to it should be respected, as it has to use the same resources to satisfy its needs. 46. At a secondary level, the State is obliged to protect right-holders against other subjects by 5 legislation and provision of effective remedies. This obligation requires the State to take measures to protect beneficiaries of the protected rights against political, economic and social interferences. Protection generally entails the creation and maintenance of an atmosphere or framework by an effective interplay of laws and regulations so that individuals will be able to freely realize their rights and freedoms. This is very much intertwined with the tertiary obligation of the State to promote the