c.
Not contain any disparaging or insulting language;
d.
Not based exclusively on news disseminated through the mass
media;
e.
Are sent after exhausting local remedies, if any, unless it is obvious
that this procedure is unduly prolonged,
f.
Be filed within a reasonable time from the date local remedies were
exhausted or from the date set by the Court as being the
commencement of the time limit within which it shall be seized with
the matter;
g.
Do not deal with cases which have been settled by those States
involved in accordance with the principles of the Charter of the
United Nations, or the Constitutive Act of African Union or the
provisions of the Charter
29. The Court notes that the Respondent State raises three objections to the
admissibility of the Application, based on incompatibility of the Application
with the Constitutive Act of the African Union (the Constitutive Act), nonexhaustion of local remedies and failure to file the Application within a
reasonable time. The Court will first consider these objections before
examining other admissibility requirements, if necessary.
A. Objection to the admissibility of the Application based on incompatibility
with the Constitutive Act of the African Union
30. The Respondent State contends that in order to be admissible, an
application must indicate the provisions of international legal instruments
violated by the Respondent State. It cites a decision in which the African
Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights declared a communication
inadmissible on the grounds that the allegations of human rights violations
were vague.7
31. It submits that the alleged violation of the right to a fair trial related to a
private law dispute between the Applicant and his employer, which was the
African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, Communication Frédérick Korvan v. Liberia,
Application No. /88, 26 October 1988, § 4.
7
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