000ffir
49.
With respect to the first condition, it is not in dispute that the Applicant, Dexter Eddie
Johnson, is the same person who filed a communication against the Respondent
State before the HRC. The Court, therefore, finds that the parties, in this Application
and the communication before the HRC, are identical and, therefore, the first
condition has been met.
50. With regard to the second and third conditions, the Court notes that in
the
communication examined by the HRC, the Applicant claimed that a mandatory death
penalty for all offences of a particular kind, such as murder, prevents the trial court
from considering whether this form of punishment is appropriate and thus the death
penalty amounts to a violation of his right to life under Article 6(1) of the ICCPR. The
Applicant further claimed that the imposition of the death penalty, with no judicial
a lesser sentence, violates the prohibition of inhumane or
degrading treatment or punishment under Article 7 of the ICCPR and that the
discretion to impose
imposition of this sentence violated his right to a fair trial since part of this right is the
right to review his sentence by a superior court contrary to Article 14(1) and (5) of
the ICCPR. Lastly, the Applicant averred that the Respondent State failed in its
obligations under Article 2(3) of the ICCPR to provide an effective remedy to the
above-mentioned violations of his rights and he requested the HRC to make a finding
to that effect.
51
.
ln the present Application, the Court notes that there is a decision on the merits of
the communication that was brought before the HRC and neither of the parties deny
the existence of such a decision.lz The Court observes that although
the
Respondent State may have opted not to follow the Views of the HRC this does not
mean that the matter has not been considered and consequently seftled within the
meaning of Rule 40(7) of the Rules or Article 56(7) of the Charter. What is crucial is
that there must be a decision by a body or institution that is legally mandated to
consider the dispute at international level.
t2 Dexter Eddie Johnson v Ghana (HRC)
15