“Should the Court establish that interference with the
property right was not in accordance with the Law, it does not
need to consider legitimacy of the state objectives or the issue
of proportionality. In this case, there will automatically be a
violation of Article 1 of Protocol 1 of the Convention (which is
in pari materia with Article 14 of the Charter) and it will be
unnecessary for the Court to even consider whether such
unlawful interferences pursued a legitimate purpose”
(RIGHT TO PROPERTY UNDER THE EUROPEAN CONVENTION ON HUMAN RIGHTSHUMAN RIGHTS HANDBOOK NO 10 PAGE 15).
92. Based on the above, and having held that the interference by the Respondent is
unlawful and thus not in accordance with the law, the Court will accordingly not
proceed to examine whether it meets the requirement of public purpose or general
interest.
93. From the above analysis, the Court finds that the Respondent violated the right
to property of the Applicant guaranteed by Article 14 of the African Charter and
Article 17 of the UDHR.
Allegation of violation of right to fair hearing.
94. The crux of the Applicant’s case is that his property was auctioned and he was
not accorded the opportunity to have a say in the auction proceedings and to defend
his cause having not received a hearing notice to that effect.
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