Le régime juridique des étrangers au Cameroun

B) Legal institutions

On a purely illustrative basis, we will study the case of the regional jurisdiction which is the African Court of the humans right and of the people^177(*) created by the Member States of the OAU, following the adoption of the Protocol of June 09, 1998, in Ouagadougou, in Burkina-Faso. Under the terms of article 2 of this text, it is charged to know of all the businesses and all the disagreements of which it is seized concerning the interpretation and the application of the African Charter, the Protocol and any other relevant instrument relating to the humans right.

However, the Court shows two more fundamental limits which have truly a negative impact on the condition from abroad. Initially, although it already came into effect since January 1, 2004^178(*), this institution does not exist yet indeed. The guarantee of the rights from abroad thus remains very fragile on the whole of the continent because it is still not installed. In the second place, when well even the Court would be effective, its sasine is especially favorable to the States, just like in the case of the African Commission. Indeed, article 5 (3) of the Protocol lays down very complex possibilities of introduction of the individual communications. It specifies that « the Court can allow the individuals (...) to bring actions directly in front of it under the terms of article 34 (6) of this protocol ». Article 34 (6) in question indicates that « constantly starting from the ratification of this protocol, the State must make a statement accepting the competence of the Court to receive the requests given in article 5 (3) of this protocol. The Court does not receive any request pursuant to article 5 (3) interesting a State left which did not make such a statement ». Thus, article 5 (3) grants as a preliminary an option to the Court which decides some supremely. If it chooses for example to reject the communications of the immigrant, the violations which he sudden go perdurer. If it rather prefers to accept them, this last is confronted with another obstacle. Indeed, since the State blamed made the declaration envisaged by article 34 (6), it is free of be party to legal proceedings ; in the contrary case, its communication is inadmissible and the violations will continue to prevail. As, once installed, the African Court will protect better the States as the individuals as a whole from the area. It is already a limit with the effectivity of the rights of the expatriates to Cameroun.

Beyond the weakness of the Community legislation, the weaknesses, even the inexistence of the State of right also harm the rights from abroad.

* ¹⁷⁷ Cf SCHUTTER (Olivier) and others, CDIDH, COp cit, pp.713-720, for more details on the organization, the composition, the competence and the work of the African Court of the humans right and of the people.

* ¹⁷⁸ Indeed, it was necessary 15 ratifications so that it can come into effect. See for this reason, Communication of YONABA (Salif), «  African Court of the humans right and of the people  », IN  Annual congress of the African Company of International law and Compared (SADIC)- Accra, August 2000. We make a point of recalling that Cameroun did not leave yet to this Protocol.