remedying of the alleged violations of their rights, even if it means resorting, should the need arise, to the international systems of protection of human rights like the African Commission for Human and Peoples’ Rights. 51. In view of the foregoing, the African Commission considers that in the context of the present Communication, the domestic remedies are not available and as such the condition for exhausting them as envisaged by Article 56 of the African Charter cannot be invoked. The African Commission therefore concludes that the objections raised by the Respondent State in terms at Article 56 (2) and are not substantiated, and thus holds that the present communication is admissible. Merits Complainant’s submission on the merits 52. The Complainant claims that the provisions of Articles 35 and 65 of the 2000 Constitution of the Republic of Cote d’lvoire contravenes both Articles 2 and 13 of the African Charter. Article 35 of the said Constitution stipulates that: “The president of the Republic……. should be of Ivorian origin, born of a Father and Mother who themselves must be Ivorian by birth…”. 53. Article 65 of the Constitution stipulates that the candidate to the Presidential elections or to the posts of Speaker or Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly “should be of Ivorian by birth, with both parents being of Ivorian origin, should never have renounced Ivorian nationality and should never have acquired another nationality”. 54. The Complainant contends that in establishing the rules and conditions of access to the abovementioned public offices, the Constitution makes a distinction between lvorians on the basis of their places of origin and their birth, and divides lvorians into categories, applying different standards to different categories, something the Complainant finds discriminatory and contrary to the Article 2 of the African Charter. 55 In terms of Article 35 of the Constitution the following categories of citizens cannot be eligible to run for the office of President of the Republic, or to be elected as Speaker of the National Assembly or Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly. 1. Ivorians who acquired Ivorian nationality other than by birth, that is, either through, marriage or naturalisation. 2. Ivorians who although Ivorians by birth, were born of Ivorian parents, do, at same stage in their lives, hold another nationality and 3. Ivorians who had once renounced Ivorian nationality. 56. Such a distinction, according to the Complainant would result in the exclusion of more than “40% of the Ivorian population from submitting candidature to the above-mentioned public offices…”, and this would reduce the choice left to citizens to freely choose their fellow citizens to direct the affairs of their nation, contrary to Article 13.1 of the African Charter. 57. On the allegation that the Constitution violates Article 3 of the African Charter, the Complainant points out that the Constitution, in its Article 132, accords civil and criminal immunity to the members of the former National Committee for Public Security (CNSP), an executive military body which had directed the transition, and to the perpetrators of the events which brought about the change of th Government following the Coup d’Etat of 24 December 1999. 58. According to the Complainant, this immunity is “total and unlimited” in time and would prevent certain persons, victims of the acts perpetrated by those granted amnesty to bring their cases to court in order to obtain compensation for the wrongs done to them. According to the Complainant, this constitutes unequal protection of the law contrary to Article 3.2 of the Charter. Respondent State’s submission on the merits 59. The Respondent State, for its part, while disputing the assertion that the Constitutional provisions in question have excluded “more than 40% of the population” of Cote d’lvoire from access to the said offices as argued by the Complainant, justifies instead the need of the said provisions by the fact that