Community Court of Justice.
35. In the instant case, the act of instituting proceedings was done before the national authority that is
designated by the domestic law of Côte d'Ivoire to represent the State in court proceedings; it was the said
national authority that filed a Memorial in Defence dated 9 April 2009, which was received at the Registry
on 16th April, 2009.
It follows therefore that, without having recourse to the provisions of Article 33(6) of the Rules of Procedure
of the Court, the procedure followed before the Court, in the instant case, is legally founded, and the case
was properly brought before the Court.
36. Consequently, the Court dismisses the objection made in regard to this last plea-in-law and declares
that the case was properly filed before it and that it has jurisdiction to adjudicate on the matter.
Analysis of the Court Concerning Pleas on the Merits of the Case
37. The Applicant cited two violations of rights guaranteed him by international texts, notably Articles 7
× All are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to equal protection of the law. All
are entitled to equal protection against any discrimination in violation of this Declaration and against any
incitement to such discrimination.
and 23(3)
× Everyone who works has the right to just and favourable remuneration ensuring for himself and his family
an existence worthy of human dignity, and supplemented, if necessary, by other means of social protection.
of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
The Applicant considered that the Defendant State has violated, on one hand, his right to equal
remuneration and on the other hand, the principle of equality of all citizens before the law.
As to Violation of the Right to Equal Remuneration
38. The Applicant asserted that in Côte invoke, the practice was adopted to mobilise contribution from rural
areas, particularly from the cocoa- coffee sector, through the instruments of the DUS system (Single Exit
Right) and registration taxation, for the purposes of increasing yield from the cadastral survey of rural
areas. The Applicant contended that this mobilisation was carried out through exorbitant fiscal policies,
which deprived the cocoa and coffee producers of the revenue they were entitled to, and finally eroded the
purchasing power of the producers. That by so doing, the Republic of Côte d'Ivoire has violated the
provisions of Article 23(3)
× Everyone who works has the right to just and favourable remuneration ensuring for himself and his family
an existence worthy of human dignity, and supplemented, if necessary, by other means of social protection.
of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which provides that: "Everyone who works has the right to
just and favourable remuneration ensuring for himself and his family an existence worthy of human
dignity, and supplemented, if necessary, by other means of social protection".
39. The Defendant State averred, in reply, that the alleged injustice claimed by the Applicant reposes on
Ivorian laws, rules and regulations or on its administrative decisions on taxation in the cocoa and coffee
sector, and as such, the Court has no jurisdiction to adjudicate upon the Applicant's request.
40. For the Defendant State, the Court cannot examine the legality of such legal instruments of the civil law
of Côte d'Ivoire, namely its taxation law in respect of levies imposed on coffee and cocoa.
41. The Court cannot agree with such a stance, which tends to exclude from the jurisdiction of the Court,
human rights violation which may occur in any sector governed by national law, be it on taxation law or
otherwise.
42. Indeed, if international instruments relating to human rights authorise States to amend, in certain
circumstances, rights and freedoms they have pledged to guarantee, international bodies like this
Honourable Court do acknowledge their right to examine the legitimacy of the legal stance adopted by the
States and their proportionality with the aims and objectives of guaranteed rights.
43. Such monitoring is intended to ensure that States, while employing the margin of freedom accorded
them to amend rights through the adoption of national laws, do not end up emptying those rights or
freedoms of the very essence of their meaning. To this end, the United Nations Committee on Human
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