PART B: Substantive Norms on Torture in the African Regional Human Rights System
to South Africa for political reasons. South Africa in turn deported him to what
was then Bophuthatswana, which in turn deported him back to Botswana. Unable
to determine where to keep the victim, the authorities of the Respondent State
left him homeless for an extended period in a specially created strip of territory
along the South African border called ‘no-man’s land’. The Commission found that
by denying Mr Modise his nationality and deporting him repeatedly, Botswana
violated his right to respect for human dignity. The Commission also found that
such enforced homelessness was inhuman and degrading treatment that offended
‘the dignity of human beings and thus violated Article 5’.201 This case supports the
conclusion that involuntary or forced displacement directly attributable to the
State or its agencies is a violation of the right to respect for human dignity. The
case further supports the argument that victims of such displacement are entitled
in such cases to minimum guarantees of assistance, including shelter.
In another case, Purohit and Moore v. The Gambia, the Commission clarified that
personal suffering and indignity ‘can take many forms, and will depend on the
particular circumstances of each case brought before the African Commission’.202
The particular circumstances may require that violations of the right to respect
for human dignity are found in conjunction with other provisions of the Charter,
such as the right to health. The Mauritania cases,203 for example, comprised five
consolidated communications arising from developments in Mauritania between
1986 and 1992. Briefly, these communications alleged the existence in that State
of slavery and analogous practices, and of institutionalized racial discrimination
perpetrated by the ruling Beydane (Moor) community against the more populous
black community. The cases alleged that black Mauritanians were enslaved, routinely evicted or displaced from their lands, which were then confiscated by the
Government. The communication also alleged that some detainees had, among
other things, been starved to death, left to die in severe weather without blankets
or clothing and were deprived of medical attention. The Commission found that
starving prisoners and depriving them of blankets, clothing and health care violated both the guarantee of respect for human dignity in Article 5 and the right to
health in Article 16 of the Charter.204
Similarly, in the case of Sudan Human Rights Organisation and COHRE v. Sudan,
the Commission agreed with the UN Committee Against Torture205 that ‘forced
201 Ibid., para. 32.
202 ACHPR, Purohit and Moore v. The Gambia, Comm. No. 241/2001, 33rd Ordinary Session (May 2003),
para. 77.
203 ACHPR, Malawi African Association and Others v. Mauritania, Comm. Nos. 54/91, 61/91, 98/93, 164-169/97
& 210/98.
204 Ibid., para. 122.
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