English - African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights

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e taken as offering guidelines on domestic application of International Human RightNorms, The Bangalore Principles provide that it is within the proper nature o fIud i eialProcess for national courts to have regard to international human rights norms, whetheror not incorporated in domestic law for the purpose of resolving ambiguity or uncertaintyin national constitutions and legislation. The judiciary was sensitised on the relevancyand importance of referring to international or regional human rights instruments, duringa judicial colloquim, organised by the Commonwealth between 24 - 28 February, 1997.We are yet to see results.ARTICLE 1The Sovereign State of Lesotho recognises the rights contained in the Charter andundertakes to honour the obligations there-of by adopting legislative or other measuresto give effect to them, as indicated in the narration above.ARTICLE 2The rights recognised in the Charter are guaranteed to all individuals, citizen and aliensalike, residing in Lesotho. The Constitution specifically provides in section 4 (1) thatevery person in Lesotho is entitled, whatever his race, colour, sex language, religion,political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status tofundamental human rights and freedoms, to each and all of the following-:(a) the right to life;(b) the right to personal liberty;(c) the freedom of movement and residence;(d) freedom from inhuman treatment;(e) freedom from slavery and forced labour;(0 freedom from arbitrary search or entry;(g) the right to respect for private and family life;(h) the right to a fair trial of criminal charges against him and to a fair(i) determination of his civil rights and obligations;freedom of conscience;(k) freedom of expression;(1) freedom of peaceful assembly;(m) freedom of association;(n) freedom from arbitrary seizure of property;(o) freedom from discrimination;(p) the right to equality before the law and equal protection of the law; and(q) the right to participate in government.31
In accordance with section 4 of the Land Amendment Order 1986, a citizen of Lesotho.who is not a Mosotho can not hold title to land. This is so because, given the populationof Lesotho, which is about 2 million, naturalised citizens, who have more financialresources could buy all land and displace the indigenous Basotho.The Constitution provides that for the avoidance of doubt and without prejudice, theprovisions of this Chapter shall, except where the context otherwise requires, apply aswell in relation to things done or omitted to be done by persons acting in a privatecapacity, whether by virtue of any written law or otherwise as in relation to things doneor omitted to be done by or on behalf of the Government of Lesotho or by any personacting in the performance of the functions of any public office or any public authority.(Section 4 (2).The Constitution of Lesotho provides for freedom from discrimination in section 18.It reads as follows:(1) Subject to the provisions of subsection (4) and (5) no other law shall make anyprovision that is discriminatory either of itself or in its effect.(2) Subject to the provisions of subsection (6) no person shall be treated in adiscriminatory manner by any person acting by virtue of any unwritten law or inperformance of the functions of a public officer or any authority.(3) In this section the expression "discriminatory" means affording different treatmentto different persons attributable wholly or mainly to their respective descriptionsby race, colour, sex, language i eligion, political opinion, national or social origin,property, birth other status w hereby persons of one such description are subjectedto disabilities or restrictions to which persons of another such description are notsubject to or are accorded privileges or advantage which are not accorded topersons of another description.(4) Subsection (1) shall not apply to any law to the extent that the law makesprovision: (c) for the application of the customary law of Lesotho with respect toany matter in the case of persons who, under that law, are subject to that law.Presently, the Lesotho Law Reform <strong>Commission</strong> has drafted a Married Persons'Equality Bill of 2000, thus varying the unequal marital power between men and womenAliens in Lesotho are not discriminated ciliaHist, but there is a procedure to be follo■\ cdbefore they gain entry and sojourn in I esollio32
Page 2 and 3: ERRATAThe following spelling errors
Page 4 and 5: Title PageTABLE OF CONTENTSTable of
Page 6: Article 8(Freedom of conscience, re
Page 9 and 10: The Government, i.e the Monarchy, E
Page 11 and 12: Lesotho's newly found democracy did
Page 13 and 14: With all these powerful enemies ( o
Page 15 and 16: Total of estimated population censu
Page 17 and 18: 1.9 BASIC DOCUMENTS ON HUMAN RIGHTS
Page 19 and 20: Now that three years have passed ev
Page 21 and 22: In particular it was pointed out in
Page 23 and 24: participate hi the elections;• el
Page 25 and 26: The Government and Independent Poli
Page 27 and 28: The Department of Social Welfare is
Page 29 and 30: Several children are found abandone
Page 31 and 32: A revision has been made to this re
Page 33 and 34: 1.15 STEPS TAKEN TO PROTECT FAMILY
Page 35 and 36: The Motheris Union is an Anglican S
Page 37 and 38: The Council of State is made up of
Page 39: _--..■■••••Arramr•r",
Page 43 and 44: circumstances of the case-(a)(b)(c)
Page 45 and 46: also increased among children from
Page 47 and 48: of a holistic approach to child hea
Page 49 and 50: of Lesotho Liberation Army, victims
Page 51 and 52: imprisonment;(2) Any Chief or Publi
Page 53 and 54: (1)(2)if a parent or guardian of a
Page 55 and 56: (3) Any person who is arrested or d
Page 57 and 58: ( statistics on such cases have not
Page 59 and 60: and free from interference and subj
Page 61 and 62: admissible in evidence against such
Page 63 and 64: interference, freedom to receive id
Page 65 and 66: Section 7 further empowers the Regi
Page 67 and 68: ARTICLE 12The constitution provides
Page 69 and 70: (i)to perform such other functions
Page 71 and 72: (vi) in consequence of any law with
Page 73 and 74: According to Section 30 of the Cons
Page 75 and 76: 1997 - 2001 UNICEF/GOL programme of
Page 77 and 78: In addition to governmental efforts
Page 79 and 80: This issue is of concern to many NG
Page 81 and 82: oadening of the democratic process
Page 83 and 84: Lesotho is a member of the United N
Page 85 and 86: in section 33, which provides:With
Page 87 and 88: Consequently, the government of Les
Page 89 and 90: adopted an action plan of all the r
Page 91 and 92:
The Courts shall, in the performanc
Page 93:
I esoiho Cabinet Decisions:Cabinet
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English - African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights

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