The Court has already adjudicated on the preliminary objection raised by
the Applicants regarding the alleged late lodgement of the Defence by
Burkina Faso. Indeed, according to the Applicants, Burkina Faso, which
received the Application on 28 May 2015, should have responded thereto
within thirty days, at the latest – that is before 27 June 2015, from their
point of view. However, in compliance with the provisions of Article 75(2)
of the Rules of the Court, the Court held the view that all the time-limits of
the procedure were frank and proper, and that since the last day for the
lodgement was a day on which there was no official work at the Court,
Monday, 29 June 2015 was indeed the last day for the Defendant State to
lodge its Memorial in Defence. Now, it was on that very day that the
lodgement was effected. Therefore, the preliminary objection regarding late
lodgment of the Memorial in Defence is hereby dismissed.
14. The Court has equally adjudicated on the request for intervention, as filed
by the law firm “Falana and Falana’s Chambers”. The Court has equally
ruled that by virtue of Article 21 of the 1991 Protocol on the Court, the right
of intervention is open to States only. Consequently, the Court has declared
inadmissible the application for intervention submitted before it.
15. As regards the allegation by Burkina Faso that the Court lacks jurisdiction
to adjudicate on the case before it, as a result of the non-concrete nature of
the claims of violation brought by Burkina Faso, the Court has always held
that it only makes rulings, in principle, on cases of human rights violation
which are concrete, real and proven, and not on violations claimed to be
possible, contingent or potential. One may thus be tempted, in the instant
case, to question whether or not the matter before the Court is indeed well
grounded, because as at the time the Court was seised with the case, no
violation had as yet been committed, nor had any case of actual rejection
of candidature been brought before the Court, and no individual
candidature had been set aside in accordance with the new provisions; that,
in a word, there is no real prejudice caused.
16. It would amount to consigning its own time-held case law to oblivion if
the Court should rule that it may legitimately entertain violations which
have not yet occurred, but are very imminent. In the instant case, the alleged
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