designed to protect human beings and not remains of humans. The treatment of
human corpses is at best a question of Ethics and morality, which should be dealt
with in private or criminal law. Therefore, the Committee concludes that all the
allegations of the Complainants relating to the postmortem treatment of the
Children do not relate to the rights and welfare of the child under the Provisions of
the Charter.
19. The Committee notes that the Communication is not strictly limited to the abuse of
the children’s bodies postmortem, albeit that is the main focus. The facts of the
case include scattered allegations of lack of professionalism leading to the death
of the children in Catholic Hospital Notre Dame de l’Amour. The Complainants
allege that the person on duty was not a doctor but a nurse and was not able to
properly diagnose the children, resulting in their death.
20. The Committee notes that at the admissibility stage complainants are not required
to provide detailed arguments on the alleged violations, however, in order to
comply with the requirement of compatibility stipulated in the provisions of the
Charter under Section IX (1) (A) of the Revised Communication Guidelines, the
applicants have to establish a prima facie violation of the right. In the same
manner, the African Commission has interpreted compatibility with the African
Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights to mean that “the communication must
reveal a prima facie violation of the Charter”5
21. In the case at hand, the complainants did not adequately explain the facts of the
case in light of article 14 of the Charter in order to establish a prima facie violation
of the provision. Furthermore, under the allegation of article 14, the Complainants
stress on the need to establish jurisprudence on dead children without explaining
how it is connected to article 14. Even though article 14 of the Charter provides
various protections relating to the right to health of the child, the Complainants fail
to establish a prima facie violation of the right in conjunction with the facts of the
case in accordance with the provision of the charter and to substantiate such
allegation.
22. The Complainants further allege a violation of article 44 of the Charter, which is a
procedural provision on the mandate of the Committee to receive
Communications. This allegation does not relate to the rights ad welfare of the
Child under the Charter. Moreover the facts under this allegation are related to the
action taken at the High Court of Wouri in Duala and the cause of death of the
Children, which are not related to the general provision of the Charter under
article 44 that bestows the mandate to receive Communications to the Committee.
23. Section IX Article 1(d) of the Revised Communication Guidelines provides that the
author of a communication should exhaust all available and accessible local
remedies before it brings the matter to the Committee, unless it is obvious that
5
Mouvement Ivoirien des Droits Humains (MIDH) v Côte d’Ivoire (2008) AHRLR 75 (ACHPR 2008) para 44.
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