3. It emerges from SERAP's request that the Court is required to give an Advisory
opinion on the following:
"i. Whether SERAP is an African organization recognized by the AU; and
Ii. Whether extreme, systemic and widespread poverty is a
violation
of
certain
provisions
of
the
African
Charter,
In
particular, Article 2 which prohibits discrimination based on "any
other status."
4. SERAP argues that by virtue of the fact that it is legally registered in Nigeria, it is an
African organization. It also maintains that it is an organization recognized by an
organ of the African Union (AU),
namely, the African Commission on Human
and Peoples' Rights (hereinafter referred to as "the Commission"), having been
granted Observer Status by this organ. It argues further that:
"on the basis of its observer status with the African Commission, and the
fact that the African Commission is an organ of the African Union, it has
the competence to request an opinion relating to any question within the
scope of the African Charter on Human and Peopies' Rights and the
African Union Constitutive Act".
5.
SERAP also submits· that "the non-specific and non-restrictive nature of the word
'organization' used in Article 4 of the Protocol suggests that a non-governmental
organization like SERAP was contemplated by the drafters of the Protocol". It
notes fu rther that:
"if the drafters wanted to limit the use of the words 'African Organization'
only
to
'African
Inter-governmental
Organizations',
they
would
have
specifically mentioned this in Article 4".
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