to mental or physical health. 2. For the purpose of paragraph 1: (a) "Attack directed against any civilian
population" means a course of conduct involving the multiple commission of acts referred to in paragraph 1
against any civilian population, pursuant to or in furtherance of a State or organizational policy to commit
such attack; (b) "Extermination" includes the intentional infliction of conditions of life, inter alia the
deprivation of access to food and medicine, calculated to bring about the destruction of part of a population;
(c)"Enslavement" means the exercise of any or all of the powers attaching to the right of ownership over a
person and includes the exercise of such power in the course of trafficking in persons, in particular women
and children; (d) "Deportation or forcible transfer of population" means forced displacement of the persons
concerned by expulsion or other coercive acts from the area in which they are lawfully present, without
grounds permitted under international law; (e) "Torture" means the intentional infliction of severe pain or
suffering, whether physical or mental, upon a person in the custody or under the control of the accused;
except that torture shall not include pain or suffering arising only from, inherent in or incidental to, lawful
sanctions; (f) "Forced pregnancy" means the unlawful confinement of a woman forcibly made pregnant,
with the intent of affecting the ethnic composition of any population or carrying out other grave violations of
international law. This definition shall not in any way be interpreted as affecting national laws relating to
pregnancy; (g) "Persecution" means the intentional and severe deprivation of fundamental rights contrary to
international law by reason of the identity of the group or collectivity; (h) "The crime of apartheid" means
inhumane acts of a character similar to those referred to in paragraph 1, committed in the context of an
institutionalized regime of systematic oppression and domination by one racial group over any other racial
group or groups and committed with the intention of maintaining that regime; (i) "Enforced disappearance of
persons" means the arrest, detention or abduction of persons by, or with the authorization, support or
acquiescence of, a State or a political organization, followed by a refusal to acknowledge that deprivation of
freedom or to give information on the fate or whereabouts of those persons, with the intention of removing
them from the protection of the law for a prolonged period of time. 3. For the purpose of this Statute, it is
understood that the term "gender" refers to the two sexes, male and female, within the context of society.
The term "gender" does not indicate any meaning different from the above.
of the Statute of the International Criminal Court.
89. Now, the appreciation of such cases fall within the jurisdiction of other international judicial set-ups,
more precisely, the international criminal courts.
The instant Honourable Court is therefore incompetent to consider whether the complaint drawn from this
particular plea-in-law is well founded or not.
Are the arrest and detention of the applicant arbitrary?
90. The Applicant averred that her arrest and detention on 9 May 2007, as well as her detention at the
Konni Prison, were arbitrary and do constitute a violation of Article of the African Charter on Human and
Peoples' Rights. According to her, the said bigamy is unfounded, for lack of a marriage between her and El
Hadj Souleymane Naroua - whereas it has been proved that the said detention was consequent upon the
complaint deposited by El Hadj Souleymane Naroua, and whereas the arrest and detention of the Applicant
were decided upon following the same complaint which had been deposited by her ex-master before the
Konni Criminal Court.
91. A detention is said to be arbitrary when it does not repose on a legal basis. Now, in the instant case, the
arrest and detention of the Applicant were carried out in implementation of the judicial decision made by the
said Konni Criminal Court. This decision constitutes a legal basis, and it does not fall within the jurisdiction
of the Court to consider whether such a decision is well founded or ill founded.
Does the applicant have a right to relief for reparation?
92. In her Reply dated 7 April 2008, the Applicant requested that the Republic of Niger be made to pay the
amount of Fifty Million CFA Francs (CFA F 50,000,000) as relief for the reparation of the harm suffered.
93. In reaction to the foregoing, the Defendant asserted that this request amounts to the filing of a new
plea-in-law, and he cited Article 37 (2) of the Rules of Procedure of the Court, thus concluding upon the
inadmissibility of the application for reparation.
94. The Court recalls that the inadmissibility provided for in Article 37 (2) of the Rules of Procedure
concerns new pleas-in-law raised by a party during the course of proceedings. In the instant case, the
quantification of the reparation asked for cannot be considered as a new plea-in-law, but rather, as a
specification of the request for relief as contained in the application instituting proceedings.
Consequently, there are grounds for dismissing the argument of the Defendant.
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