Notably, Alfred B. Cudjoe v Ghana did not supply reasons for limiting the local remedies
to be exhausted to “courts of a judicial nature”. Article 56(5) of the Charter does not in
itself also hint at the types of local remedies that ought to be exhausted. It is thus
necessary to clarify that the essential characteristic of the remedy that ought to be
exhausted for purposes of Article 56(5) of the Charter is its demonstrable effectiveness
in redressing a particular violation. In this regard, the remedy must primarily conform
to and operate in accordance with certain fundamental legal principles. It must operate
in strict observance of the procedural guarantees of a fair hearing by a competent,
independent and impartial organ.25 It must be based on enforceable law from which the
relief it offers earns its mandatory or coercive force, as opposed to being merely
discretionary.26
60. Cudjoe v Ghana27 is generally good authority and the Commission affirms it.
However, the proposition for which it is authority must be understood in light of the
standard constitutional model by which the competence to adjudicate
complaints/disputes usually vests in national organs known as “courts of law” which
in principle by their very design operate or ought to operate according to the standards
enunciated at paragraph 59 above. This is the assumption underlying the proposition in
Cudjoe v Ghana. It obviously is not the mere nomenclature by which the national organ
is named that qualifies its mechanism as a remedy for purposes of Article 56(5) of the
Charter. Indeed, even where the national organ is “a court” it is still possible that a
Grievances Committee within the National Advisory Council; The National Commission on Human
Rights; and Office of the Ombudsman, all rejected as remedies to be exhausted).
24 Communication 275/03 - Article 19 v Eritrea (2007) ACHPR para. 70 (writ of habeas corpus to the
Minister of Justice rejected as a remedy to be pursued).
25 The Charter, Art. 7(1)(a) and (d) as read together with Art. 26; Communication 87/93 - The
Constitutional Rights Project (in respect of Zamani Lekwot and six Others) v Nigeria (1995) ACHPR para.
8; Communication 147/83 - Lucía Arzuaga Gilboa v. Uruguay (1985) HRC para. 7.2
26 Communication 375/09 - Priscilla Njeri Echaria (represented by Federation of Women Lawyers, Kenya
and International Center for the Protection of Human Rights) v. Kenya (Echaria v Kenya) (2011) ACHPR
para. 53; Communications 48/90-50/91-52/91-89/93 - Amnesty International, Comité Loosli Bachelard,
Lawyers' Committee for Human Rights, Association of Members of the Episcopal Conference of East
Africa v Sudan (1999) ACHPR para. 31; Communication 313/05 Kenneth Good v Botswana (2010)
ACHPR para. 88; Communication 87/93 - The Constitutional Rights Project (in respect of Zamani Lekwot
and six Others) v Nigeria (1995) ACHPR para. 9; and Communication 231/99- Avocats Sans Frontières
(on behalf of Gaëtan Bwampamye) v Burundi (2000) ACHPR para. 23; Communication 334/06 Egyptian
Initiative for Personal Rights and Interights v. Egypt (2011) ACHPR para. 96; Velásquez-Rodríguez v.
Honduras, n 14 above.
27 Above, n 9
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