ECOWAS Community Court of Justice

From TrustAfrica wiki - African Regional Organizations

ECOWAS Community Court of Justice
Plot 1137
Dar es Salaam Crescent
Off Aminu Kano Crescent
Wuse II, Abuja - Nigeria

Tel: 234 9 5240780
Fax: 234 9 5240780

Website: http://www.court.ecowas.int

Contact: Hon. Justice H.N. Donli, President
Contact: Hon. Justice Tall EL Mansour, Vice President

Description

The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) is made up of 15 West African countries and came into existence by the signing of the Treaty in Lagos, Nigeria on May 28, 1975.

In October 1999, ECOWAS decided to establish a Court of Justice following a two-day meeting of Justice Ministers in Abuja, to address complaints from member states and institutions of ECOWAS, as well as issues relating to defaulting nations. The setting up of the Court was approved by the ECOWAS summit in December 1999, and in 2001 it was agreed that it would be hosted by Nigeria.

The role of the Court is to interpret the Treaty establishing ECOWAS and its subsidiary protocols. The Court also has jurisdiction over decisions and directives takes by ECOWAS member states. Significantly, the Court can hear a case concerning the violation of human rights by a member states. The Court considers disputes and gives advisory opinions.

States can take cases against other member states of the sub-region. States may also take cases on behalf of nationals against other states to the Court. Individuals invoking treaties, conventions and protocols of the Community, and where they are alleging a human rights violation may take the matter to Court.

The Court is composed of seven judges appointed by the Authority of Heads of State and Government from a list of up to two persons nominated by each Member State. Each member of the court serves a five year term which can be renewed once. Members of the Court serve on a full-time basis. The Court first met officially on 30 July 2001 in Bamako, Mali, while its rules of procedure were published in the following year.

Track Record

The Court’s independence has been strengthened over the years. Initially, the Court had one stringent limitation on the impact it could have in the Community: a narrow field of access. Only the Authority of Heads of State and Government (the executive of the Community comprised of all the Member States) and the Member States acting individually were permitted to initiate a contentious case in the Court. The power to request advisory opinions on the Treaty was limited to the Authority, the Council of Ministers, Member States, the Executive Secretary and other institutions of the Community.

In August 2004, the Community Court of Justice was amended to allow individual ECOWAS citizens direct access to the Court. The supplementary draft Protocol was formally drafted at the 28th Session on the authority of the Heads of State and Government in January 2005 in Accra, Ghana.

INTERIGHTS was part of the Consultative Forum on protecting the rights of ECOWAS citizens through the ECOWAS Court of Justice at a meeting in Dakar, Senegal, October 18-20, 2004. Organized by the Community Court of Justice in collaboration with the West African Human Rights Forum and the Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA), the Forum produced a Declaration on the proposed amendments to the ECOWAS Court of Justice Protocol. Notably, it says that States Party must do everything they can to ensure access to justice to citizens and that they must be ratified urgently so it becomes in force.

The ECOWAS Community Court of Justice received its first case in 2004. This landmark first case (Olajide Afolabi v. Federal Republic of Nigeria) was filed by a businessman against the government of Nigeria for a violation of Community law in the closing of the border with Benin. The Court ruled that under the Protocol only Member States could institute cases. The Court’s ruling began a discussion, headed by the Judges themselves, over the need to amend the Protocol to allow for legal and natural persons to have standing before the Court.

In January 2005, the Community adopted an Additional Protocol to permit persons to sue Member States. Beyond this monumental change, the Council took the opportunity to revise the jurisdiction of the Court to include review of violations of human rights in all Member States. This language made clear that the sources of law to be applied by the Court under its original Protocol would include not only general principles of international law, but also those in relation to human rights. Additional Protocol also adds jurisdiction over any disputes arising under agreements, other than the Treaty, between Member States that so provide.

The Additional Protocol also gave national courts of Member States the right to seize the ECOWAS Court for a ruling on the interpretation of Community law. Previously, the language in the Protocol was unclear as to whether a Member State court could only seize the Community Court of a matter through the auspices of the national government. Further changes are expected, with the Court having been previously scheduled to add an appellate division in January 2007.

Since the adoption of the Additional Protocol, the Court has received several cases from individuals and the institutions of the Community itself. Notably, the Court has been seized by Nigerian politicians complaining of violations of their human rights in the determination of election outcomes. The Court’s handling of these cases has been controversial in Nigeria, as some in the Nigerian legal community believed that the Court should have rejected them immediately, without issuing interim orders.

While this increase in the caseload of the Court is encouraging, the Court’s future as an engine for integration across the Community remains in question because the cases being brought are from Nigeria alone rather than other Member States. Further, the President of the Court has noted that the accessibility and cost of bringing cases to the Court continue to be a barrier to the Court's success, in addition to its inadequate human, financial and material resources.

Following the Additional Protocol, the Court underwent further changes to its position within the Community. In June 2006, the Authority of Heads of State and Government decided to establish a Judicial Council of the Community with responsibility for recruiting judges for the Community Court and handling judicial matters.