Wakilii

Abess v Republic of Tunisia (Application No. 026-2018)

African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights · [2022] AfCHPR 80 · 2022 Application Struck Out AI-generated summary ↓ Download Pin to watchlist Add to matter
Jurisdiction
Uganda
Case Type
Application to the African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights alleging violations of human rights relating to rejection of candidacy for 2014 Tunisian presidential election
Decision
Application struck out without prejudice to the Applicant's right to file a new application in accordance with Rule 65(3) of the Rules

Observed later treatment

No later-treatment classification is recorded for this judgment.

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Holding

The African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights struck out the application from its cause list on the ground that the Applicant failed to pursue his case with due diligence. Despite multiple requests and extensions of time granted by the Registry to file supporting documents and a reply to the Respondent State's response, the Applicant repeatedly failed to comply without justification. The Court found this constituted a failure to pursue the case within the meaning of Rule 65(1)(b) of the Rules of Court.

Outcome

Application struck out without prejudice to the Applicant's right to file a new application in accordance with Rule 65(3) of the Rules

Facts

Mohamed Ali Abess, a Tunisian advocate, submitted his candidacy for the 2014 Tunisian presidential election. On 29 September 2014, the Independent High Authority for Elections rejected his candidacy on the ground that it failed to garner the required number of endorsements under Tunisian law. The Applicant also filed four cases before domestic courts in Tunisia which allegedly remained unsettled. He brought an application to the African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights alleging multiple violations of his rights under the African Charter and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. The Registry repeatedly requested the Applicant to submit supporting documents, including copies of domestic court judgments, and to file a reply to the Respondent State's response. Despite multiple reminders and extensions of time between October 2018 and November 2020, the Applicant failed to comply with any of the Court's requests.

Issues

  1. Whether the Applicant failed to pursue his case within the time limit provided by the Court.
  2. Whether the Application should be struck out from the Court's cause list under Rule 65(1)(b) of the Rules of Court.

Orders

  • Application struck out from the Court's Cause List.

Rules and key headnotes

Civil Procedure — Striking Out of Applications — Failure to Pursue Case
Where an applicant fails to pursue his case within the time limit provided by the Court, the Court may at any stage of the proceedings decide to strike out the application from its cause list under Rule 65(1)(b) of the Rules of Court.
Civil Procedure — Diligence in Pursuing Proceedings — Court's Discretion
Parties to an application should pursue their case with diligence, and where they fail or indicate, implicitly or explicitly, their lack of interest to do so, the Court may remove the application from its cause list to save the Court's resources from being unnecessarily expended on matters the consideration of which will not serve the interests of justice.
Civil Procedure — Striking Out — Effect on Right to Refile
The striking out of an application is without prejudice to the applicant's right to file a new application in accordance with Rule 65(3) of the Rules of Court.

Legislation cited (10)

  • African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights Article 2
  • African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights Article 3
  • African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights Article 7
  • African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights Article 13
  • Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights on the Establishment of an African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights Article 18
  • Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights on the Establishment of an African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights Article 22
  • Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights on the Establishment of an African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights Article 34(6)
  • International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights Article 14
  • International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights Article 25
  • Tunisian Organic Law on Elections and Referendums No. 16 of 26 May 2014

Cases cited (2)

  • Abdallah Ally Kulukuni v United Republic of Tanzania (Application No. 007/2018)
  • Magweiga Mahiri v United Republic of Tanzania (Application No. 029/2017)

Full judgment

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The original judgment as reported. Read the original PDF before relying on any passage.

Abess v Republic of Tunisia (Application No. 026-2018) [2022] AfCHPR 80 (23 June 2022)
Source: this page presents Wakilii’s issue analysis and metadata for a publicly reported Ugandan judgment. Any AI-generated summary is marked as such. Judgment text is sourced from the Uganda Legal Information Institute (ulii.org). Wakilii is not affiliated with ULII.