B. Objection based on the failure to file the Application within a reasonable
period of time
59. The Respondent State submits that in the event that the Court finds that the
Applicant has exhausted local remedies, it should then find that the
Applicant has not filed this Application within a reasonable period, because
the decision of the Court of Appeal was delivered on 1 June 2010, whereas
this Application was filed before this Court on 31 August 2017. Moreover,
the Respondent State deposited its instrument accepting the jurisdiction of
the Court under Article 5(3) of the Protocol on 29 March 2010, therefore, “a
period of seven (7) years and four (4) months elapsed” from the date the
Respondent State accepted the competence of the Court to the time the
Applicant filed his Application at the Court.
60. The Respondent State submits that even though, the Rules of the Court do
not quantify or define reasonable time, this Court has held that it shall
consider what amounts to reasonable time on a case-by-case basis.21
61. It contends that the general maxim holds that all admissibility requirements
provided by Rule 40(1-7) of the Rules22 have to be met for an application to
be deemed admissible as was in the case of Mariam Kouma and Ousmane
Diabate v. Mali,23 where the Court held that “… the conditions of
admissibility are cumulative and, as such, when one of them is not fulfilled,
the Application cannot be admissible”. The Respondent State submits that
this is the case in the instant matter, therefore the Application should be
declared inadmissible and dismissed.
*
21
Application No. 013/2011, Beneficiaries of the late Norbert Zongo and Others v. Burkina Faso, § 121;
Application No. 007/2013, Mohamed Abubakar v. The United Republic of Tanzania, § 91.
22 Rule 50(2) Rules of Court, 2020.
23 Application No. 040/2016, Mariam Kouma and Ousmame Diabate v. Mali, § 63.
17