CAT/C/36/D/181/2001
page 8
the victims are not Senegalese nationals. To establish that the complainants are subject to
Senegalese jurisdiction in the present instance, one has only to establish that the communication
concerns acts that fell under Senegal’s jurisdiction, since as only Senegal can decide whether to
continue with the legal proceedings instituted by the complainants in Senegal. By instituting
proceedings in the Senegalese courts, the complainants came under the jurisdiction of the State
party for the purposes of those proceedings.
5.5
The complainants also make the subordinate point that, under Senegalese law, foreigners
instituting judicial proceedings in the State party must accept Senegalese jurisdiction. This
shows that, even if Senegal’s restrictive interpretation is accepted, the complainants do indeed
come under the State party’s jurisdiction.
5.6
Lastly, the authors argue that the State party cannot invoke domestic law to claim that
they are not subject to its jurisdiction since that would be tantamount to taking advantage of its
failure to comply with article 5, paragraph 2, of the Convention, under which States parties are
obliged to take such measures as may be necessary to establish their jurisdiction over the
offences referred to in article 4 of the Convention. In invoking this argument, the State party is
disregarding both customary law and international law. The principle of nemo auditur propriam
turpitudinem allegans is applied in most legal systems and prevents anyone asserting a right
acquired by fraud. Moreover, under article 27 of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties,
“a party may not invoke the provisions of its internal law as justification for its failure to
perform a treaty”. The complainants point out that the Vienna Convention thus reaffirms the
principle that, regardless of the arrangements under internal law for the implementation of a
treaty at the national level, such arrangements cannot detract from the State’s obligation at an
international level to ensure the implementation of and assume international responsibility for
the treaty.
The Committee’s decision on admissibility
6.1
At its twenty-seventh session, the Committee considered the admissibility of the
complaint. It ascertained that the matter had not been and was not being examined under another
procedure of international investigation or settlement, and considered that the communication
did not constitute an abuse of the right to submit such communications and was not incompatible
with the provisions of the Convention.
6.2
The Committee took note of the State party’s argument that the communication should be
found inadmissible since the complainants are not subject to Senegal’s jurisdiction within the
meaning of article 22 of the Convention.
6.3
To establish whether a complainant is effectively subject to the jurisdiction of the State
party against which a communication has been submitted within the meaning of article 22, the
Committee must take into account various factors that are not confined to the author’s
nationality. The Committee observes that the alleged violations of the Convention concern the
refusal of the Senegalese authorities to prosecute Hissène Habré despite their obligation to
establish universal jurisdiction in accordance with article 5, paragraph 2, and article 7 of the
Convention. The Committee also observes that the State party does not dispute that the authors
were the plaintiffs in the proceedings brought against Hissène Habré in Senegal. Moreover, the