It is with mortification in the soul and with dismay that the members of Planรจte Paix, received on April 29, 2020 the decision of the authorities to withdraw the declaration of competence of the State of Cรดte d’Ivoire provided for in the protocol relating to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights issued on June 19, 2013.
Was there a survey of real Ivorian public opinion ? Or have we consulted the Ivorian people ?
Without these paths, the decision that is made is arbitrary and despotic.
Planรจte Paix rises in consequence, against such an attacking decision against democracy which does not honor the Cote dโIvoire and its people who nevertheless hold sovereignty.
The exercise of such a right of withdrawal in a time close to the provisional order made by the Court of Arusha and a few months before the presidential elections is abusive and takes away all good faith from its author.
By this decision, the Ivorian authorities decided to withdraw from their citizens and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) the right to directly seize the African court of human and peoples’ rights.
By this rough decision, the Ivorian authorities give themselves a much wider and dangerously sufficient margin of maneuver to trample in profusion the rights of these citizens being understood that from now on the citizens (the weakest); and NGOs (the voice of the voiceless) are deprived of their essential rights to have recourse to the ACHPR when they have failed to obtain justice before national courts.
Such an unjustifiable and indefensible decision, which cannot be based on the rational principle of law, carries ineffable legal insecurity against the Ivorian people in particular and the peoples of African countries in general, however real holders of sovereignty.
Planรจte Paix calls for the vigilance and responsibility of the national and international community on the issue.
Planรจte Paix sadly notes with bitterness that in Cรดte d’Ivoire and in many African countries, democracy is sick of the political politics of these politicians.
Planรจte Paix invites the Ivorian authorities to admit that such a decision is a gross error and to pull themselves together because no State today can lock up or confine rights.
“A State is not like on the ground that it sits an inheritance ; it is a society of Men who alone can dispose of itself.”, Emmanuel Kant in Philosophical Essay on perpetual peace.
Planรจte Paix, Peace Organization, for Peace and Human Rights recalls that the law cannot accommodate personal and personalized tailoring, tailor-made and considers that such a decision is a forfeiture which cannot serve as an example in a world that only demands protection of human and peoples’ rights.
This augurs, no doubt, of a definite threat to the upcoming elections.
Planรจte Paix is therefore worried about the outcome of the upcoming elections and asks the national and international community to act as quickly as possible to save the sincerity of the vote, democracy, guarantee legal security, safety, life and rights of Ivorian citizens as well as citizens of other countries threatened by such an anti-democratic decision.
Done in Abidjan on 04/30/2020
The Central President of PLANETE PAIX
H. Em. Achille COMOE