PART C: Protection against Torture: Procedures before the African Commission
and African Human Rights Court
has been brought to the attention of the High Commissioner for Refugees, for
instance, should not preclude it from being considered by the Commission under
this requirement.422 Similarly, the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention and other
such non-judicial international bodies are not the kinds of bodies envisioned under
article 56(7) of the Charter.423 As such, cases which have been brought before such
bodies should not be declared inadmissible on grounds of failing to meet this admissibility requirement. However, in INTERIGHTS (on behalf of Pan African Movement
& Citizens for Peace in Eritrea) v. Ethiopia and INTERIGHTS (on behalf of the Pan African
Movement and the Inter Africa Group) v. Ethiopia, the complaint concerned forced population transfers connected with the conflict between Eritrea and Ethiopia between
1998 and 1999.424 Under a peace settlement to end the conflict, reached after the
communication was initiated, a Claims Commission was set up to consider and
award compensation, restitution and other remedies for the violations suffered by
the victims of the forced population transfers. On the facts, the Commission ceded
consideration of the case to the Claims Commission and suspended indefinitely
the consideration of the communication.
5. Provisional Measures
An author, or counsel acting on the author’s behalf, may request that the
Commission indicate provisional measures ‘to prevent irreparable harm to the
victim or victims of the alleged violation’, or the Commission may do so of its
own motion.425 The Commission Rules of Procedure authorise it to indicate, as it
deems fit, interim or provisional measures for implementation by the respondent
State in the proceedings.426 These measures do not have a bearing on the final
determination of the case.
The African Commission has clarified that ‘in circumstances where an alleged
violation is brought to the attention of the Commission and where it is alleged
that irreparable damage may be caused to the victim, the Commission will act expeditiously, appealing to the State to desist from taking any action that may cause
irreparable damage until after the Commission has had the opportunity to examine
422 See C. A. Odinkalu and C. Christensen, “The African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights:
The Development of Its Non-State Communications Procedures”, 20 Human Rights Quarterly 235,
266-268 (1998).
423 ACHPR, Haregewoin Gebre-Sellassie & IHRDA (on behalf of former Dergue Officials) v. Ethiopia, Comm. No.
301/2005, para. 117.
424 ACHPR, INTERIGHTS (on behalf of Pan African Movement & Citizens for Peace in Eritrea) v. Ethiopia and
IINTERIGHTS (on behalf of Pan African Movement and Inter African Group) v. Eritrea, Comm. Nos. 233/99
& 234/99, 33rd Ordinary Session (29 May 2003).
425 ACHPR, Rules of Procedure, supra note. 43, Rule 98(1).
426 Ibid., Rule 98.
101
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