Wakilii

Woods and Another v Liberia (Communication 256 of 2002)

African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights · [2003] ACHPR 51 · 2003 Application Dismissed AI-generated summary ↓ Download Pin to watchlist Add to matter
Jurisdiction
Uganda
Case Type
Communication to the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights alleging violations of the African Charter arising from arrest and detention of journalists
Decision
Communication dismissed as inadmissible for failure to exhaust local remedies

Observed later treatment

No later-treatment classification is recorded for this judgment.

Citator coverage is limited to judgments in the Wakilii corpus and source-matched treatment records. Absence of a signal is not an assertion that the case remains good law.

AI-generated summary. This summary was generated by AI from the full text of the judgment. It may contain errors or omissions—always read the source judgment before relying on it.

Holding

The African Commission declared the communication inadmissible under Article 56(5) of the African Charter due to non-exhaustion of local remedies. Despite repeated requests, the complainants failed to furnish submissions on admissibility, particularly on the question of exhaustion of domestic remedies.

Outcome

Communication dismissed as inadmissible for failure to exhaust local remedies

Facts

On 24 June 2002, plain-cloth state security officers from multiple Liberian security agencies arrested Hassan Bility, Ansumana Kamara and Mohamed Kamara, journalists working for the independent Analyst Newspaper in Monrovia. The Minister of Information confirmed the arrests. No charges were proffered against the journalists, who remained in detention. Human rights organisations filed a petition at the First Judicial Circuit Court, which issued a Special Writ of Habeas Corpus that was allegedly not complied with. The Liberian Government announced its intention to arraign the detained journalists before a military tribunal. Samuel Kofi Woods, II and Kabineh M. Ja'neh filed a communication with the African Commission on 9 August 2002 on behalf of the detained journalists, alleging violations of the African Charter. The Commission was seized of the matter at its 32nd Ordinary Session in October 2002 and appealed to President Charles Taylor to intervene pending consideration. The Secretariat repeatedly requested submissions on admissibility from both parties, but the complainants did not respond.

Issues

  1. Whether the communication should be declared admissible despite the complainants' failure to submit arguments on exhaustion of local remedies.

Orders

  • Communication declared inadmissible due to non-exhaustion of local remedies.

Rules and key headnotes

Human Rights — Admissibility of Communications — Exhaustion of Local Remedies
A communication before the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights will be declared inadmissible where the complainants fail to furnish submissions demonstrating exhaustion of local remedies as required by Article 56(5) of the African Charter, despite repeated requests from the Commission.

Legislation cited (4)

  • African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights Article 6
  • African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights Article 7(b)
  • African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights Article 7(d)
  • African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights Article 56(5)

Full judgment

↓ Download PDF

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

Woods and Another v Liberia (Communication 256 of 2002) [2003] ACHPR 51 (20 November 2003)
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.