Communication 383/10, Al-Asad v. Djibouti, is currently pending before the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (“African Commission”). The communication was filed in December 2009. In 2014, the African Commission published a decision finding the communication inadmissible. Following a request for review, the African Commission overturned its 2014 decision and found the case admissible in 2016. The African Commission mentions this decision on page 7 of its 40^th Activity Report, released in 2016.

The African Commission has yet to issue a decision on the merits of the communication. The African Commission publishes issued opinions on its website. No decision on the merits in Mr. al-Asad’s case is currently listed on the African Commission’s case page for this communication.

The African Commission held a hearing on the communication in May 2018. This hearing is mentioned on page 9 of the African Commission’s 44^th Activity Report, released in 2018. Since that date, the African Commission has deferred making a decision on multiple occasions, as seen on page 12 of the African Commission’s 45^th Activity Report and page 8 of its 46^th Activity Report.

The African Commission only publishes final decisions on its website, which in practice means that only decisions dismissing cases as inadmissible or decisions on the merits are published. Therefore, while the African Commission did note in its 40^th Activity Report that it granted the plaintiff’s request for review, thereby overturning its previous inadmissibility decision, the only decision available on the African Commission website is the outdated 2014 decision finding the case inadmissible.

Last updated on July 6, 2020