this obligation were that of an obligation of diligence the guaranteeing of human rights would be the
object of legal insecurity liable to release the State Parties to the human rights protection instruments
from any responsibility of effective protection. It is in taking into account the compelling nature of the
protection of human rights that the human rights instruments set up control institutions to ensure that
the obligations ensuing from these instruments are effectively implemented.
Analysis of the Commission with regard to the application of the case in point
113. The legal nature of the obligations outlined in the provisions of Article 1 of the Charter having
been clarified, the specific question raised with regard to its application to the case in point is that of
knowing whether the State of Cameroon was held by an obligation of diligence or an obligation of
result and whether the circumstance of force majeure cited by the Respondent State is fulfilled in order
to release the said State from its obligation.
114. The Complainant contends that the State of Cameroon is bound by an obligation of result and
consequently is compelled to pay compensation for the injuries suffered by the victims of the 1992
post-electoral events. The State of Cameroon on her part maintains that it was bound by an obligation
of diligence as the 1992 events were of an insurrectional character. They are akin to a situation of
force majeure which the means employed by the Government could not curtail. Consequently, the
State of Cameroon avers that it is free from any liability.
115. Pertaining to the case in point, considering the definition of the legal nature indicated above, the
Commission is of the view that the obligations which ensue from Article 1 impose on the State of
Cameroon the need to implement all the measures required to produce the result of protecting the
individuals living on its territory. The use of the legal, technical, human and material resources that the
State of Cameroon claims to have did not produce the expected result, namely that of guaranteeing
the protection of human rights. For the post electoral events which gave rise to serious violations
against the lives and property of the citizens would not have taken place if the State which, through its
investigations knew or should have known about the planning of the said events, had taken the
necessary measures to prevent their happening.
116. The events in question having taken place the day after the announcement of the results of the
presidential elections, the Authorities only acted four days after the exploding of the hostilities, which
promoted the magnitude of the violence and the serious violations of human rights and destruction of
property. It has been established that, under the circumstances, the Respondent State has failed in its
obligation to protect, considering its lack of diligence and allowed the destruction of lives and property.
Furthermore, by invoking the circumstances of force majeure to free itself from its responsibility, the
State of Cameroon has implicitly shown that it had been held by an obligation of result in this particular
case.
117. In principle, the circumstance of force majeure which assumes the characters of unpredictability,
irresistibility and imputability can be invoked if the conditions had been fulfilled at the time of the
events. In this case, the said characters of unpredictability, irresistibility and imputability required by a
situation of force majeure and which the Respondent Party is invoking cannot be applicable for,
according to the Respondent State itself, disturbances of public law and order existed in the country
since May 1990 and specifically during the holding of the elections, and that moreover, the
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threats of the 11 , 18 , 19 and 22 October 1992 from the SDF, the Opposition Party and
qualified by the Respondent State as « an atmosphere of political intimidation and counter
intimidation… » , sufficiently prove the existence of early warning signs of the events in question and
consequently the predictability of the events.
118. What is more, the Respondent State had manifested its control of the territory and therefore its
ability to stand up to the perpetrators of the post electoral events, by instituting a state of siege a few
days after the events in question; had this state of siege been instituted earlier, the events in question
would have at least been reduced in scope if not entirely quelled.
119. The obligations prescribed by the African Charter in its Article 1 impose on the States Parties
(the State of Cameroon included) the need to put in place all measures liable to produce the result of
preventing all violations of the African Charter over their entire territory. These are not only violations
which could emanate from the State machinery itself or those from non State actors. The