72. During the Oral Hearing the Commission requested the Respondent State to forward to it the Rules and Regulations Governing Public Meetings and Protests in Egypt, before a decision can be made. The Commission’s Analysis on Admissibility 73. Article 56 of the Charter provides seven admissibility requirements which need to be cumulatively fulfilled before a Communication is declared Admissible. In the present Communication, the Respondent State contests the fulfillment of only one of the seven Admissibility requirements, which is exhaustion of local remedies. Accordingly, the assumption here is that the Respondent State agrees that the six other requirements have been fulfilled. 74. After carefully assessing the submissions of the Complainants, the African Commission is also convinced that the Communication does meet the other six Admissibility requirements under Article 56 of the African Charter. The Commission will therefore proceed to decide whether the Communication meets the requirement of exhaustion of local remedies as provided under Article 56(5) of the Charter. 75. According to the well-established jurisprudence of the African Commission, Complainants are required to exhaust local remedies only if the local remedies are available, effective and sufficient. A local remedy is considered available “if the petitioner can pursue it without impediment, it is deemed effective if it offers a prospect of success, and it is found sufficient if it is capable of redressing the complaint”.16 76. The rationale behind the exhaustion of local remedies rule is that states should be given the opportunity to address the issue before the matter is brought before international treaty bodies. 17 The Commission has confirmed and reconfirmed this position in its decisions. For example, in Free Legal Assistance Group and Others v Zaire and Rencontre Africaine pour la Défense des Droits de l’Homme v Zambia, the African Commission stated that the requirement of exhaustion of local remedies is founded on the principle that a government Jawara case, para 32. See Nsongurua J. Udombana ‘So Far, So Fair: The Local Remedies Rule in the Jurisprudence of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights’ (2003) 97 The American Journal of International Law (2003) 9. 16 17 17