Protecting human rights and the environment: The Judgment of the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights of 5 September 2023 in the case of Ivorian League for Human Rights and Others v. Côte d’Ivoire

In autumn 2023, the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights issued a decision in the case of massive human rights violations due to the disaster that occurred in August 2006. It is about a scandalous incident of dumping highly toxic waste in the port city of Abidjan (Côte d’Ivoire) and its suburbs, which affected and continues to affect the health and lives of more than a hundred thousand people. At the same time, serious harm was caused to the environment as well. Despite the fact that the State is recognized as the primary subject of international human rights law, which is obliged to respect, observe and protect human rights, the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights still examined in detail the scope of responsibility of a transnational corporation (Trafigura in this case) as a participant in international relations that affects human rights. Although the Court did not equate the responsibility of a transnational corporation in human rights with that of a State, it nevertheless noted the need for further study of this responsibility and the possibility of a more effective response to it by human rights mechanisms. In highlighting the issue of ensuring the right to reparation for human rights violations in the proceedings on the merits of the case, the African Court reaffirmed its commitment to the understanding of this right by the UN bodies with considering the specific African legal approach. In this regard, the decision against Côte d’Ivoire is noteworthy, since the Court supported the applicants’ demand to oblige the State to apply all five forms of reparation: restitution, compensation, satisfaction, rehabilitation and guarantees of non-repetition. At the same time, the Court analyzed each of the forms of reparation and applied them to the circumstances of the case under consideration. Meanwhile, the African Court once again emphasized the need for an individual approach to reparation for victims of human rights violations and a broader structural approach to preventing possible violations. The significance of this judgment of an international human rights judicial mechanism is due to the massive violations of human rights with the ongoing consequences and to the lack of access to national courts for most of the victims. In this case, the Court considered violations of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights as well as the 2003 African Convention on the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources and the 1991 Bamako Convention on the Ban of the Import into Africa and the Control of Transboundary Movement and Management of Hazardous Wastes within Africa.

About the author: Kristina Keburiya – Candidate of Sciences (Ph.D.) in Law, Associate Professor, Department of International and Integrational Law, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration, Moscow, Russia .

Citation:

Keburiya K. (2024) V zashchitu prav cheloveka i okruzhayushchey sredy: Postanovlenie Afrikanskogo suda po pravam cheloveka i narodov ot 5 sentyabrya 2023 goda po delu Ivuariyskaya liga po pravam cheloveka i drugie protiv Kot-d'Ivuara [Protecting human rights and the environment: The Judgment of the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights of 5 September 2023 in the case of Ivorian League for Human Rights and Others v. Côte d’Ivoire]. Mezhdunarodnoe pravosudie, vol.14, no.4, pp.17–37. (In Russian).

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