ACHPR
African Commission on
Human and Peoples' Rigr)~s
Human Rights our
Collective Responsibility
79. Given the appellate courts' or~er dismissing It~eComplainants~ appeal. against
government, the Counter Claim for alt~rna:tive accommodation agamst the
Government is considered to have been dktermined with finality. What is left of
the suit is the Eviction Application brdught by the trustees as the private
owners of the property. Based on this fac~,theCommission holds the view that
the Complainants have exhausted local remedies against the Respondent State
in line with the requirement of Article 56(5), considering that the pending
Eviction Application has no bearing on the responsibility of government to
provide, at the very least, temporary alte native accommodation to address the
Complainants' housing situation.
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80. The Commission further holds the view tbaffn,tl;l,e
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shown that there is any other practic~t,:~?~~~~~,>re ,,'y available to the
Complainants other than the referenc~B':'Evi~ti<)~RrR,l1 "
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has been
found to be insufficient. To this
~avirig\~9btaiH~~0);~maJ_jtJq~ginentin
respect of the co~nter-applic.at.i~2/~the/~~~?on~~t}t.State l1:*~;!(~ot
..demonstrated
how the Complamants may I~l~:f~~e
anotH~r",~ctH?n
in the dOI\l~,~p.c
court, based
on the same claims and relie£$j;~d~$h,t
in ~Be';~pi:tnter-applicati~A~
without being
estopped from doing so,)J,ased on>f1l." 0~tririg(6f:res judicata (which means, the
matter has already beE;~'~~djudicated )1 by a cOq}p~t~Ptcourt) .
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81. The above view.of :tRe <S(?,~.p.)i.~IOn al
" ten~~...to the contention by the
Respondent State that th~<,,:.a~.legedi u~~pe living conditions of the
Complainants, which is being 'rek!~~
up In as~bne of the bases for the alleged
violations, has pot been dealt witR~~~Y';,.tts
domestic courts. This is not quite the
case. In the de~~stonof the High Cou:t"," ;r exure B attached to the Complaint),
it ~an be seen l{tat, the issue of t~~,liYmg conditions and the urgent need for
alfEl~~.~tive
accommodation for t£¢/ComFlainants was duly raised and formed
the q~.Si~:~8f_!he
co{iht~i 'c1~i~.:fl.sljlldicate~upon by the courts up to finality on
appea,lj::;h,'"~H:J;;:;;:~.~J:?'
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82. In this re<g9-r,<arthe"CQ~issionfinds that the Respondent State has not shown
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how the '<g:pmplainap.tsmay solely litigate this cause-of-action against the
municipal g'9yernment, without being estopped by the courts on the basis that it
falls within 1i'~1iP'atter
which has alreadyl been exhaustively dealt with by the
courts. In any-event, the Commission finds that this contention will fail to the
extent that it has observed from the text lof the decisions of the national courts
which were provided by the Complainal1ts, that there were ample references to
the Complainants' living conditions, in the context of the absence of 'provision
of essential services to them.
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83.