human rights abuse. Thus the provisions of the ACHPR do not avail the
Plaintiff in this Court in so far as they complain about human rights
abuse against them as a Company”
66. This Court also In OCEAN KING NIG. LTD v. REPUBLIC OF SENEGAL, (2011)
CCJELR 139, held as follows in paragraph 48 and 49 of the judgment:
“It is noteworthy that whilst Article 10(c) gave the right of access to
individuals and corporate bodies, Article 10(d) gave the right of access in
human rights violation causes to only individuals.
49. That leads the Court to find out the meaning of individuals within the
context of Article 10 of the Protocol. The Court thinks individuals within
the context of Article 10 of the Protocol refers to only human beings and
no more. This is so because Article 10(c) mentioned individuals and
corporate bodies. What that means is that the legislation sought to
distinguish between human beings and other legal entities.”
67. The Court went further to clarify in THE INCORPORATED TRUSTEES OF THE
MIYETTI ALLAH KAUTAL HORE SOCIO-CULTURAL ASSOCATION v. FEDERAL
REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA, (2012) CCJELR, 171 that:
“Thus there is a clear distinction between these two classes of cases, one
in which the corporate body sues as the victim and the other in which it
sues on behalf of the victim, the victim here being identified as a human
being. In the former situation the corporate body has no locus or
capacity to sue, but in the latter situation it has.”
68. The time is ripe to revisit the interpretation of “Tout Personne Victime” as
decided in the above cases in order to reconcile the divergent jurisprudence and
come out with a well-reasoned decision on the issues for the guidance of the
parties, lawyers appearing before the Court and Scholars.
69. Whereas, the English text of article 10(d) clearly states individuals (natural
persons), the French texts of the same Article states tout personne victime”
(every person that is a victim). Personne in the French text includes an
individual who is a physical person and a corporate body which is a juristic
person. The key word however is that the personne must be a victim of human
rights violation.
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