Keywords:

Human rights in Africa, Southern African Development Community, acts of international organization and responsibility of its members, extraterritorial application of human rights treaties

Abstract:

A land reform in Zimbabwe and accompanying compulsory acquisition of property were held incompatible with the Treaty of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) by the Tribunal of the SADC. Malevolent attitude of the SADC Member-States towards the judgment culminated in suspension of the Tribunal by the SADC Summit. This, in turn, led to institution of two international legal proceedings challenging the decision of the SADC Summit: before the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights (the Commission) and African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights. The present article offers a high-altitude and high-speed look at the case and the African system of human rights protection, focussing on two main procedural issues canvassing the Commission’s decision as to the admissibility of 12 November 2012. The first of them refers to the problem of “unveiling a state” in respect of an act of international organization. The second concerns the extraterritorial scope of obligations within the systems of human rights protection. Both have a profound implications in the international law.