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African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights
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Fidèle Mulindahobi v. Republic of Rwanda
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Application No. 006/2017
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Dissenting opinion to the Judgement of 4 July 2019
1- lshare the opinion of the majority of the Judges regarding the jurisdiction of the
Court and the inadmissibility of the Application.
2-
On the other hand, I am of the opinion that the manner in which the Court treated
"the default" is at variance with:
- the provisions of Rule 55 of the Rules of Court;
- Article 28(6) of the Protocol;
- its jurisprudence and comparative law.
3-
lndeed, Rule 55 (1) of the Rules states: "whenever a party does not appear before
the court, or fails to defend its case, the court may, on the application of the other
party, render a judgment in default after it has satisfied itself that the defaulting
party has been duly served with the application and all other documents pertinent
to the proceedings".
It is clear from the foregoing Paragraph 1 that a decision to render a judgement in
default must meet certain criteria
absence of one of the parties or;
failure to defend its case;
rendered on the application of the other party;
service of the application on the defaulting party;
service of the other documents pertaining to the proceedings
4- the key element
in this paragraph is that the default must be pronounced "on the
application of the other party".
Therefore, making a decision in default can be a mere issue of form no doubt, but
not of procedure that requires a substantive discussion regarding the elements of
appreciation and a legal basis.
However, neither the case file nor the Applicant's application reveals that he
prayed the Court to hand down a judgement in default.
1