IV consideration of cases instituted against it before the Court takes a decision on the matter (see paragraph 13 of the Order). 14. Also on 3 March 2016, the Registrar received a letter from the Legal Counsel of the African Union notifying him of the Respondent State’s withdrawal of its optional declaration recognizing the compulsory juridisdiction of the Court; the Legal Counsel deemed it necessary to specify that, if at all valid, such a withdrawal would not affect consideration of cases already instituted before the Court before 29 February 2016." 15. Essentially, the aforementioned exchanges of correspondence show that: 1) The Court set a public hearing for 4 March 2016 for the purpose of hearing the observations of the Parties on the preliminary objections and on the merits of the matter; 2) Each Party, for different reasons, requested postponement of the date oi the public hearing; 3)The Court received official notification of Rwanda’s withdrawal of its declaration; 4) The Court decided not to accept the request for postponement of the public hearing submitted by the Parties and maintained the hearing for the date initially set. 16. 1 would now expatiate on the reasons as to why I regard the adoption of this Order as not justified and even dangerous for the integrity of the judicial function and authority of the Court. 17. In its Response to the Application filed on 23 Respondent State raised objections of inadmissibility of particular the non-exhaustion of local remedies) and made merits of the case. It however did not raise any objection on January 2015, the the Application (in submissions on the lack of jurisdiction. 18. On this score, it seems to me important to point out that, going by its formulation, the request made by the Respondent State on 1 March 2016 (see paragraph 10 of the Order) cannot in any way be perceived as preliminary objection for lack of jurisdiction. The Respondent State indeed requested the 4 “The Office of the Legal Counsel (OLC), which performs depositary functions regarding all treaties of the African Union on behalf of the Chairperson of the Commission, wishes to advise that the withdrawal, if at all valid, does not affect the hearing of any applications already filed with the Court before 29 February 2016”.