Constitutional Court, 16 January 2002, Decision No. 2002-004/CC
Constitution of Niger
Preamble
(…) We, the sovereign People of Niger: proclaim our adherence to the principle of pluralist democracy and to the 1948 Declaration of Human Rights, the 1981 African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, as are guaranteed by the present Constitution; (…)
Article 132
Treaties or agreements which have been duly ratified shall, upon their publication, have a higher authority than the laws, provided that each agreement or treaty is applied by the other party.
Niger
Direct resolution of a dispute on the basis of international law
Instruments not subject to ratification1
Examination by the Constitutional Court of the new statutes and rules of the Supreme Court/ Right to effective legal remedy/ Direct resolution of a dispute on the basis of international law
The Constitutional Court of Niger had to decide on the constitutionality of the law modifying the composition, organization, duties and functioning of the Supreme Court. One of the articles of that law provided that in the event of an action against a nomination an adjudication should be made within 60 days. In the absence of an adjudication the appeal was deemed to have been dismissed ipso jure and the dismissal final.
The Court examined the conformity of this provision with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (integrated into the so-called block of constitutionality)2 and held that the offending article violated: “the provisions of Article 8 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948), which is worded as follows: “Everyone has the right to an effective remedy by the competent national tribunals for acts violating the fundamental rights granted him by the Constitution or by law.””
On the basis of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights the Constitutional Court of Niger ruled that the provisions of the law which stipulated that appeals against nominations were deemed to have been dismissed in the absence of an adjudication within 60 days were unconstitutional.
1 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 1948.
2 Preamble to the Constitution of Niger: “(…) We, the sovereign People of Niger: proclaim our adherence to the principle of pluralist democracy and to the 1948 Declaration of Human Rights, the 1981 African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, as are guaranteed by the present Constitution.
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