LCP4807 Assignment 2 (DETAILED ANSWERS) Semester 1 2024 - DISTINCTION GUARANTEED

LCP4807 Assignment 2 (DETAILED ANSWERS) Semester 1 2024 - DISTINCTION GUARANTEED - DISTINCTION GUARANTEED - DISTINCTION GUARANTEED Answers, guidelines, workings and references ............ The Republic of Liberte in the African continent has one of the most restrictive abortion laws in the world. Liberte is a democratic country with the Constitution, which is a replica of the Constitution of South Africa, 1996. Liberte has ratified UN human rights instruments such as the UDHR, ICCPR (including its optional protocols), ICESCR, CEDAW (including its optional Protocols). Liberte has also ratified the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights and all the other AU Conventions and Protocols including the Protocol to the African Charter on the Rights of Women. Article 116 of the Liberte Penal Code of 1935 criminalises abortion in all circumstances, except where abortion is performed to save the life of the woman. On the 13th of June 2020 Agibu, a 13-year-old girl was repeatedly raped by a 48-year-old man. She became pregnant and wanted to terminate the pregnancy. She was denied an abortion in three hospitals and forced to carry the pregnancy to term. The Constitutional Court of Liberte has repeatedly in previous judgments found that Article 116 of the Penal Code was not unconstitutional. Appalled by the legal environment in Liberte, the African Centre for Women Justice (ACWJ), an International Non-Governmental Organisation specialising on issues of reproductive health, approaches you as an expert in human rights for a legal opinion. They would like to institute legal proceedings against the Republic of Liberte before the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights (The African Court). Using the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women (Women’s Protocol); the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (ACRWC), the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and other relevant sources and cases, write a legal opinion for ACWJ. Among others reflect on the following: a) Procedural issues regarding admissibility of cases before the African Court. b) The various rights infringed by Article 116 of the Penal Code of Liberte. c) Remedies to be claimed. In general- your arguments should indicate whether the action of Liberte is inconsistent with Liberte’s international human rights obligations or not.