The purpose of the study is to determine the extent to which Benin’s Constitutional Court gives effect to the right to reparation under the African Charter and to examine relevant routes for the Court to discharge its duty fully and accurately. Ultimately, the study envisions suggesting Benin’s Constitutional Court a more genuine approach to the right to reparation with an emphasis on the content and scope of the right to reparation, competent remedial institutions and determination of the quantum in cases of monetary compensation. / Mini Dissertation (LLM)--University of Pretoria, 2007. / http://www.chr.up.ac.za/ / Centre for Human Rights / LLM

Alors que la question de la responsabilité juridique des entreprises multinationales (EMNs) est sujette à de nombreuses controverses sur la sphère internationale, les victimes collatérales et directes des activités des EMNs sont engagées dans une tout autre bataille. En effet, de quels recours disposent les victimes de pollution environnementale causée par les activités d’une entreprise minière, ou les employés victimes de violations des droits fondamentaux du travail au sein d’une chaîne de production par les sous-traitants d’une très respectable EMN? Telles sont les interrogations animant la présente étude qui se focalise essentiellement sur la mise en oeuvre du droit à la réparation consacrée par le troisième pilier des Principes directeurs adoptés par l’ONU en 2011. Retraçant les fondements du droit à la réparation en droit international, elle met en évidence l’impossibilité de poursuivre les EMNs devant les instances internationales du fait de l’irresponsabilité juridique internationale découlant du statut actuel des EMNS. En l’absence de législation extraterritoriale et d’harmonisation juridique au niveau régional, l’analyse aborde ainsi en profondeur les opportunités et les limites de la mise en oeuvre du droit à réparation devant les instances judiciaires nationales les plus courues du moment par les victimes qui cherchent à obtenir des réparations pour les violations des droits humains par les EMNs. Si les obstacles rencontrés par les victimes devant le prétoire américain n’ont eu de cesse de se multiplier ces dernières années, l’émergence d’un principe de diligence raisonnable sous-tendant l’idée d’une responsabilité civile des EMNS devant le juge européen et canadien peut offrir une base adéquate pour asseoir l’encadrement d’un droit à réparation par les acteurs transnationaux à l’échelle locale. Les Principes directeurs privilégiant également l’implication des EMNs dans la mise en oeuvre du droit à réparation, la recherche se clôt avec l’étude du cas pratique de la réponse apportée par les EMNs aux victimes bangladaises de la tragédie du Rana Plaza survenue en 2013 à Dacca. L’analyse permet ainsi de conclure que de ce combat aux allures de David contre Goliath opposant les EMNs à leurs victimes, il est impératif que les mécanismes judiciaires nationaux soient renforcés et que l’encadrement juridique de la responsabilité internationale des EMNs sorte enfin des sentiers battus afin de remédier à l’asymétrie causée par la poursuite des intérêts économiques sur la protection effective des droits humains. / While the legal issue of multinational companies (MNCs) liability is subject to a large controversy in the international sphere, the collateral and direct victims of the MNCs’ activities are engaged in a different battle. Indeed, what remedies are available to victims of environmental pollution caused by a mining company, or employees who are victims of human rights violations of labour within a production chain managed by the subcontractors of a very respectable MNC? These are the mains questions of this study which focuses primarily on the implementation of the right to remedy enshrined in the third pillar of the UN Guidelines adopted in 2011. Tracing the foundations of the right to remedy under international law, it highlights the impossibility to prosecute MNCs in international forums due to the international legal irresponsibility resulting from the current status of MNCs. In the absence of extraterritorial legislation and legal harmonization at the regional level, the analysis proposes an in depth discussion of the opportunities and limitations of the implementation of the right to remedy in the main national courts used by victims seeking redress for human rights violations committed by MNCs. If the barriers faced by victims before the American courts have not ceased to grow in recent years, the emergence of due diligence obligation behind the idea of a civil liability of MNCs presented before European judges can provide an adequate basis to establish the framework of a right to compensation by transnational actors at the local level. As the Guidelines also emphasize the involvement of MNCs in the implementation of the right to compensation, the study concludes with the practical case study of the response give by MNCs to the Bangladeshi victims of the 2013 Rana Plaza tragedy that occurred in Dhaka. The analysis allows to conclude that this struggle between MNCs and their victims is similar to the battle between David and Goliath. It is thus imperative to strengthen national judicial mechanisms and ensure that the legal framework for the international responsibility of MNCs finally gets out of the beaten tracks to address the asymmetry between the pursuit of economic interests and the effective protection of human rights.

"First, this dissertation proposes to explore the practice of amnesties in dealing with violations of human rights vis-à-vis the obligation of states to punish and to prosecute gross violations of human rights and to guarantee effective remedies for victims. Secondly, it seeks to inquire, for purposes of meeting the first objective, into the validity of amnesties in international law with specific reference to the African Charter. Thirdly, on the strength of a selected case studies: South Africa and Moçambique, and informed by relevant jurisprudence drawn from the Inter-American human rights system and elsewhere, a critique informative of the recommendations as to how the African Court should deal with cases arising out of such amnesty situations will be attempted. Equally, similar reference will be made, albeit in an abridged way, to how amnesties could be dealt with at the political levels of the African Union (AU). Fourthly, the dissertation will inquire into why amnesties, which have been used to advance utilitarian ends of the communal good (national reconciliation) thereby ‘trumping individuals’ rights’, cannot at the same time, be so fashioned as to reconcile these especially relating to effective remedies for violations of human rights the amnesty seeks to address. Fifthly, in drawing on the foregoing, this study will, by way of recommendations, seek to outline criteria or conditionalities upon which amnesty should, if ever, be granted. ... The study consists of five chapters. Chapter one will provide the context in which the study is set. It highlights the basis and structure of the study. Chapter two endeavours to outline some of the basic concepts central to the study; amnesty, pardon as instruments of national reconciliation and the various avenues through which these has been effected in the past. In the main, the chapter attempts a problematisation of the concept of amnesty by which its validity and place in international law will be examined. Chapter three outlines the approaches to amnesty in South Africa and Moçambique and the countervailing state obligations to ensure rights protected in human rights instruments: to prosecute and punish violators and the rights of victims and their relatives to effective remedies. In the case of South Africa, the right to effective remedies is discussed within the context of the decision of the South African constitutional court in AZAPO. Chapter four attempts to grapple with the possibility of bringing a case before the African Court of Human Rights and how this case may, and should be decided in light of existing decisions of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights and available comparative jurisprudence on the subject. Chapter five will consist of a summary of the presentation and the conclusions drawn from the entire study. It will also make some recommendations as to how amnesty should be dealt with both at political level (AU) and at the level of the African Court in relation to human rights violations. In furtherance of this, it attempts an outline of directive criteria that should be applied." -- Chapter 1. / Thesis (LLM (Human Rights and Democratisation in Africa)) -- University of Pretoria, 2004. / http://www.chr.up.ac.za/academic_pro/llm1/dissertations.html / Centre for Human Rights / LLM