Procedure Interpretation Drawing inspiration from other international law on human and peoples’ rights In the interpretation of the African Charter, the Court may draw inspiration from other relevant human rights treaties ratified by the state concerned. Hence, in determining the proportionality and legitimacy of the limitation of independent candidacy in Tanzania in terms of article 13 of the African Charter (or article 25, ICCPR), the Court drew inspiration from international law on human and peoples’ rights as settled by the European Court’s jurisprudence in Olsson v Sweden and Sporrong and Lonnroth v Sweden; as well as the InterAmerican Court’s decision in Ricardo and others v Panama (Tanganyika Law Society, The Legal and Human Rights Centre v The United Republic of Tanzania, application 009/2011; Reverend Christopher R. Mtikila v The United Republic of Tanzania, application 011/2011, judgment, 14 June 2013, para 106.1). The Court also relied on paragraph 17 of the the United Nation’s Human Rights Committee’s General Comment No. 25 on the right to participate in public affairs, voting rights and the right of equal access to public service as ‘an authoritative statement of interpretation of Article 25 of the ICCPR’ (Mtikila, para 105).

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