consistently held that it has jurisdiction to receive and examine any
application provided that it alleges violations of any of the provisions of the
Charter or international human rights instruments to which the Respondent
State is a party.3
24. The Court observes that the allegations made in the Application are not
vague or imprecise since they relate to rights protected by the Charter. In
her application, the Applicant maintains that the Tunisian people have been
deprived of their right to self-determination and to participate in the adoption
of the constitution, rights protected by Article 20(1) of the Charter, which
provides that: “All peoples shall have the right to existence. They shall have
the unquestionable and inalienable right to self-determination. They shall
freely determine their political status and shall pursue their economic and
social development according to the policy they have freely chosen”.
Furthermore, the Court notes that the Applicant contends that the
Respondent state does not fulfil its obligation to guarantee the
independence of the judiciary and to establish institutions for the protection
of human rights guaranteed by Article 26 of the Charter.
25. Accordingly, the Court dismisses the Respondent State’s objection and
holds that it has material jurisdiction.
B. Other aspects of jurisdiction
26. The Court notes that the Respondent State does not contest its temporal,
personal and territorial jurisdiction. Having found that nothing on record
indicates that it lacks jurisdiction, the Court holds that it has:
3
Alex Thomas v. Tanzania (merits) (20 November 2015), 1 AfCLR 465, § 45; Owino Onyachi and Njoka
v. Tanzania (merits) (28 September 2017), 2 AfCLR 65, § 34-36; Gihana and Others v. Rwanda (merits
and reparations) (28 November 2019) 3 AfCLR 655, § 32 and 33; Diocles William v. Tanzania (merits
and reparations) (21 September 2018) 2 AfCLR 426, § 28; Armand Guéhi v. Tanzania (merits and
reparations), (7 December 2018) 2 AfCLR 477, § 33; Kalebi Elisamehe v. Tanzania (merits and
reparations), (26 June 2020) 4 AfCLR 265, § 18.
7