Universal-Womens-accesss-to-justice-Publications-Practitioners-Guide-Series-2016-ENG

302 PRACTITIONERS GUIDE No. 12
Human Rights, 755 the Inter-American Court of Human
Rights 756 and the African Commission on Human and
Peoples’ Rights. 757 The ACHPR has also found a remedy
to be inaccessible for a group of Sierra Leonean
refugees expelled by Guinea because they would have
been in “constant danger of reprisals and punishment”,
they constituted an “impractical number of potential
plaintiffs” for the capacity of the judicial system, and the
exhaustion of Guinean remedies would have required
them to return to a country where they suffered
persecution. 758
Whenever there are doubts as to the effectiveness,
adequateness, impartiality or independence of a remedy, “mere
doubts about the effectiveness of local remedies or the
prospect of financial costs involved” 759 do not absolve the
applicant from pursuing them. However, “where an applicant is
advised by counsel that an appeal offers no prospects of
755
Airey v. Ireland, ECtHR, op. cit., fn. 1312; Reed v. United Kingdom,
ECommHR, Plenary, Application No. 7630/76, Admissibility Decision, 6
December 1979; Öcalan v. Turkey, ECtHR, GC, op. cit., fn. 47.
756
See, Exceptions to the exhaustion of domestic remedies, IACtHR,
Advisory Opinion OC-11/90, 10 August 1990, paras. 30-35. See also,
Article 46 ACHR, and Article 31, IACHR Rules of Procedure.
757
Dr. Curtis Francis Doebbler v. Sudan, ACommHPR, Communication
No. 235/2000, 46 th Ordinary Session, 11-25 November 2009, paras.
116-117.
758
AIHRD v. Republic of Guinea, ACommHPR, op. cit., fn. 578, paras.
32-36.
759
A v. Australia, CCPR, op. cit., fn. 656, para. 6.4; Na v. United
Kingdom, ECtHR, op. cit., fn. 309, para. 89; see, inter alia, Pellegrini
v. Italy, ECtHR, Application No. 77363/01, Admissibility Decision, 26
May 2005; MPP Golub v. Ukraine, ECtHR, Application No. 6778/05,
Admissibility decision of 18 October 2005; and Milosevic v. the
Netherlands, ECtHR, Application No. 77631/01, Admissibility decision
of 19 March 2002.