the African Charter;25 (c) the Communication should be brought in respect of
violations that occurred after ratification of the African Charter or where
violations that began before the State Party ratified the African Charter have
continued even after such ratification.26 To be in conformity with the African
Charter also requires the petition to contain a certain degree of specificity, and
that the allegations are not vague.27
A careful consideration of the facts and submissions from both parties to the
AC
HP
R
101.
present Communication do not show that the instant Communication is at
variance with any part of the Constitutive Act of the African Union or the
African Charter. The Commission is therefore of the view that the present
Communication satisfies the provision of Article 56 (2) of the Charter.
102.
Article 56(3) of the African Charter requires that the Communication should
be presented with a certain degree of decorum. This Article prohibits the use of
disparaging and/or insulting language in presenting a Communication.
Although Article 56(3) does not define what constitutes disparaging or insulting
language, the African Commission in the case of IIesanmi v. Nigeria28 the
Commission held inter alia, that, to be insulting, the language must be aimed at
undermining the integrity and status of the institution (Respondent State) and
bring it into disrepute.29 In this case, the African Commission held the
Complainant‟s averments that, “the police and customs officials are corrupt, that
they deal with drug smugglers, that they extort money from motorists and that
the President himself was corrupt and had been bribed by the drug smugglers”
as an insulting language. In Ligue Camerounaise des Droits de l’Homme v.
25
Communication 1/88, Frederick Korvah V. Liberia, (ACHPR)
Communication 97/93, John K. Modise (2) V. Botswana (ACHPR)
27
Communication 35/89, Seyoum Ayelle V. Togo, Paragraph 2 (ACHPR) See also, Communication 142/94,
Muthuthurin Njoka V. Kenya, Paragraph 4 (ACHPR)
28
Communication 268/2003, (ACHPR) 18th Activity Report
29
Ibid, Para. 39
26
24