668
AFRICAN COURT LAW REPORT VOLUME 1 (2006-2016)
Actions pour la Protection des Droits de l’Homme (APDH) v
Côte d’Ivoire (2016) 1 AfCLR 668
Actions pour la Protection des Droits de l’Homme (APDH) v The Republic
of Côte d’Ivoire
Judgment, 18 November 2016. Done in English and French, the French
text being authoritative.
Judges: KIOKO, NIYUNGEKO, OUGUERGOUZ, RAMADHANI,
TAMBALA, THOMPSON, GUISSÉ, BEN ACHOUR, BOSSA and
MATUSSE
Recused under Article 22: ORE
The case dealt with the law regulating the composition, organisation and
functioning of the Ivorian Electoral Commission. The Court held that the
African Democracy Charter and ECOWAS Democracy Protocol were
human rights instruments in terms of Article 3 of the Court Protocol. On
the merits, the Court held that these instruments did not prescribe any
precise characteristics of an independent and impartial electoral body. An
electoral body would, however, be deemed independent if ‘it has
administrative and financial autonomy; and offers sufficient guarantees of
its members’ independence and impartiality’. In the case at hand the
imbalance in representation in favour of the ruling coalition amounted to a
violation of its obligation to establish an independent and impartial
electoral management body.
Jurisdiction (human rights instruments, 49, 57-61, African Democracy
Charter and ECOWAS Democracy Protocol, 63-65,
Admissibility (exhaustion of local remedies: availability, effectiveness,
sufficiency, 93; administrative jurisdiction, 96-98; constitutional validity
decided by Constitutional Council, 101, outcome of local remedies
already known, 103)
Political participation (independent and impartial electoral body, 116118; balanced composition of electoral body, 125-133, 150)
Equal protection of the law (political candidates, 151)
Separate opinion: OUGUERGOUZ
Political participation
independence, 14-16, 22)
(distinguish
between
impartiality
Remedies (Court should not go beyond Applicant’s prayers, 30-31)
and