Complaint filed on behalf of indigenous groups in the Darfur region of Sudan who had experienced massive and systemic violations of their human rights; Whether the government of Sudan violated its obligation to respect and protect the rights of the people of Darfur; Were domestic remedies exhausted to allow review by the ACHPR; Right to life and to be free from torture; Violations of economic, social and cultural rights in the context of forced displacement.
While the Commission lacks an enforcement mechanism, this decision has already been shared with NGOs and civil society organizations that will now use it to complement their campaigns for accountability. Follow up reporting to the Commission as well as UN treaty mechanisms is also planned.
The significance of this decision is that it includes several advances in the jurisprudence under the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights. First, it provides further elaboration on the right to adequate housing including the prohibition on forced eviction. Second, it reaffirms and elaborates on the right to water as an implicit right under the African Charter. Finally, it provides seminal jurisprudence on the right to water and the right of peoples to their economic, social and cultural development. The decision also articulates specific remedies including the UN Principles on Housing and Property Restitution for Refugees and Displaced Persons (Pinheiro Principles) as a framework for the right to return and the establishment of a social fund and mechanism for the rehabilitation of Darfur. Finally, this decision is significant as an African treaty applied by an African enforcement mechanisms to the atrocities in Darfur.