32. The existence or non-existence of bias can be tested in a number of ways.
will adopt the approach taken by the European Court of Human
The Commission
Rights (the European
Court) which identifies two distinctive ways of testing impartiality; the subjective approach
and the objective approach.? Whereas the subjective approach seeks to ascertain the actual
existence of bias by assessing the personal conviction of a given judge in a given case, the
objective approach asks whether the same judge offered guarantees sufficient to exclude any
legitimate doubt of impartiality.
33. In applying the subjective approach to the facts of this sai
Mi
the Corr
Wa
the Respondent State attributes bias to the Honourable C¢ ie
actual proof of her partiality.
In every case whe e bids
mal is| iti
presume the existence of impartiality unless! Biot to uh, pe
i
above, the Commissioner's participation,én the pat eliinnite
she was well within her mandate.
nission observes that
i iin
ie
the
Hua
ibn
" ‘provided. As noted
is not om dbher partiality as
ad
iv
er tthe Alical Pesce and the drafters of
}
Ty
,
should carty|out all its functions simultaneously.
nea
and
peoples’ pang the a_eten of
We
the Commission wl
friendly
‘out sensitisation, fbi
séttlemen
Governmental \Or
salien
anisati
state
‘mobilisation and information dissemination
reporting
(including
consideration
of
Non-
thadow reports), urgent appeals and other activities of special
rapporteurs and, working | groups
and
missions.¢Article 45 of the African Charter also
bestows on the Gopainission the mandate to interpret provisions of the Charter upon a
request by a state party, organs of the AU or individuals. No organ of the AU has referred
any case for the interpretation of the Charter to the Commission. However, a handful of
NGOs have approached the Commission for interpretation of the various articles of the
3 Piersack v Belgium, (Application no. 8692/79) European Court of Human Rights, Judgment Strasbourg,1
——_~
October 1982, Para 30 and 31.
4Article 45 of the Charter.
5ACHPR; Mandate of the Commission, http:// www.achpr.org/about/mandate/.
6ACHPR; Mandate of the Commission, http:// www.achpr.org/about/mandate/.
4
“ECRETARIAy