discretionary'.35 If it does not satisfy these criteria then it will not have to be
exhausted.
105.In relation to the Police Administration Committee there is very little
information provided by the State. No information is provided regarding the
legal basis on which it was established, the processes before the committee,
including whether there are procedural guarantees, and the kinds of remedies
that it is able to provide. For these reasons, in addition to the submission by the
Complainant that neither himself nor his legal representative had been
informed about this process and the absence of proof to the contrary, the
Commission finds that this would not have resulted in an effective remedy. In
any case the procedure before the NHRC is not a judicial procedure, as the
Commission has held before, and thus processes before it need not be
exhausted.36
106.On the basis of these conclusions, the Commission thus finds that the
Complainant did not have to exhaust local remedies, as they were not available,
effective and sufficient.
107. Article 56(6) requires that a Complaint must be" submitted within a reasonable
period from the time local remedies are exhausted or from the date the
Commission is seized of the matter". The Complainant notes that in the
jurisprudence of the Commission, where remedies were found to be
unavailable, ineffective or insufficient, timeliness would be assessed from the
time of the Complainant's notice of the unavailability, ineffectiveness or
insufficiency of the remedies, 37 noting that the relocation of the Complainant to
another jurisdiction; the complexities of getting representation and challenges
of communication systems in Africa are factors which are relevant in relation to
timelines.38 The Complainant submits that he filed the complaint approximately
13 months after he was released from prison and 11 months after he fled to
Kenya, indicating that he had in addition found it challenging to settle in Kenya.
108. The Respondent State to the contrary argues that because the Complainant had
remained free in his country for two months after his arrest and thereafter of his
free will left the country, the Complainant had not provided a manifestly
reasonable justification for this delay. In response the Complainant states that
the State did not respond with adequate specificity as to the factors which
determine whether there was a reasonable period, thus failing to demonstrate