relations between consenting adults
international human rights law'."72
is a violation
of their right to privacy
under
134. They concluded that the conviction of the first Victim for the offence of adultery by the
Haj Yossif General Court constituted a fundamental breach of her rights to marry and
found a family under Article 18 of the African Charter, notwithstanding
the Court of
Appeal's revocation of her convictions, given the Court's failure to uphold the first
Victim's religious freedom (and thus her marriage).
Article 1: The Failure in the Respondent's
Duty to Give Effect to the Charter
cited Abdel Hadi, Ali Radi, andsothere vs.
Republic of Sudan/» and
Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights & INTERIGHTS, y. Egyp> hey argued that violating
any provision of the Charter" means yiolati.h
rtiele i and liability thereunder. Citing
Noah Kazingashire, John Chitsenga, Elia"
tnvurq " nd Batatzai.Hadzisi::(J:,?imbabwe,74 they
submitted that ratification of the AfH
Chartert,~9.uires~"/h,!xmonizati .. · of national
laws with the African Charter. As argue
.pve, in tl\~present·'c:a..'se, the Resp ndentState
is directly responsible for the violations oH~;rti,cles 2;§3, 4, 5, 6, 7; 8, 12, 16, and 18 of the
African Charter in respect of the Victims, f()r,"'~r:s~giTIgin conductvwhich violated the
rights enshrined in those provisions. The Respolf .' t State furthermore failed to put in
place a legal framework to protect the>~YgJ:its,
of the.
plainants or provide them with
access to adequat
. emediesand redress:'
135. The Complainants
e
II
.v
The Commission's
Analysis of the Submission of Merits
136. The Commissiof ,}'Vill first consider 'the alleged violations of Article 2 of the African
Charter to determtite each allegation. After analyzing all the other Articles, the provisions
of Article 1 will He addressed. This is because a violation of Article 1 can only be
estabHsne~t1it?ther Af~~~,,~~,
in "" ~fr;
Charter have been violated. This is a common
practictdollo-weq"by the?(1!E
.. ' rrussior
,'~ if ,~
"
On Alleged Violation
of Article 2: The Right Against Discrimination
137. Article 2 prov~de§:!pat:
.
"Every individuaZ;J5hallbe entitled to the enjoyment of the rights and freedoms recognized and
guaranteed in the"present Charter without distinction of any kind such as race, ethnic group,
colour, sex, language, religion, political or any other opinion, national and social origin, fortune,
birth or another status;"
138. To determine whether Article 2 of the African Charter has been violated, the Commission
considers that various international and regional instruments provide for discrimination
against women, as it is guided by Article 60 of the African Charter. StartiIJg"'WitJ:}.the,
/.,'
o~'At; ~j''\A'
-.....
. -;::;-.U\ <,cRt 1 M?/"1;'.vO 2'.~
..c" S
<_,,,
f
o'?~
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, "Sudan: UN rights experts condemn death sentence ~gain§(pr;in'an\
mother Jor apostasy and adultery", 19 May 2014,
73 Commun~ca~on 368/09, 4 June 2014,Para 91
~ '2
-, - /);,
74 Communication 295/04, Para 142.
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