ECOWAS Community Court of Justice (II)

The ECOWAS Community Court of Justice in exercising its jurisdiction applies the Treaty, the Conventions, Protocols, and Regulations adopted by the Community, and general principles of Law. In the area of Human Rights Protection, the court equally applies the international instruments on Human Rights ratified by the State or States party to the case.

The decisions of the Court are not subject to appeal. However, the court can entertain applications for a revision where there are new facts. Decisions are also binding on member states, Institutions of the Community, individuals and corporate bodies.

The effect or consequences where the government of member states of the ECOWAS disobeys decision or orders of the community court of justice, naturally, by the Protocol of 1991, the supplementary protocol of 2005, as well as the ECOWAS revised treaty, the decisions of the court are binding on all member states as a matter of fact clearly stated. Any state that refuses to carry out the decisions of the court is ordinarily violating its international obligation under the treaty.

In international law usually, the court does not have police, ECOWAS equally does not have police, as the International Court of Justice does not own its international police, and its decisions are usually enforced through the political arm. For example, the decisions of International Court of Justice are enforced through the instrumentality of the Security Council of the United Nations.

In the words of Professor F.C. Nwoke ESQ in an exclusive interview with Young Wig Publishers, explained that the practice in International Law is that the political arm of an organization usually enforces the decisions of the judicial, because there are no international police that would be in a position to enforce like in national jurisdictions. If you go to the European Courts of Human Rights, the Council of Ministers enforces the decisions of the court. In most developed countries, non-compliance with the decisions of the court, is an exception rather than the rule, when a member state doesn’t comply and is reported to the council of ministers. The council takes decision to impose sanctions, exclude the violating state from participating in their activities. If there are matters of subsidies they are entitled to, they can be withdrawn or suspended until compliance with the decisions of the court, and because some of these, member states do comply.

In the same vein, by the express provisions of the treaty of ECOWAS, the council of ministers of ECOWAS ordinarily are supposed to enforce the decisions of the community court against member states, by taking punitive measures. Naturally, those things have to be brought to their notice by the ECOWAS commission, which is the political arm in conjunction with the council of ministers of the commission.

Since the establishment of the community court, there has been no single report that has been made by the commission either to the council of ministers, or the authority of Heads of States as to the breach of the treaty obligations of member states, that is unexplainable, it is either because of diplomatic tracts or issue of impunity.

Execution of any decisions of the court shall be in the form of a writ of execution, which shall be submitted by the Registrar of the Court to the relevant member states for execution according to the rules of civil procedure of that member state.

Upon the verification of the appointed authority of the recipient member states that the writ is from the court, the writ shall be enforced.

All member States shall determine the competent national authority for the purpose of receipt, and processing of execution and notify the court accordingly. The writ of execution issued by the Community Court may be suspended only by a decision of the Community Court of Justice.

It is advisable that legal professionals in the sub-region access the ECOWAS court on issues relating to member states to test the jurisdiction of the court and its purpose to the citizens it protects.

Just as Prof. Chidi Odinkalu, a former chairman of the Governing Council National Human Rights Commission in his Keynote address at the ongoing international conference of the community court of justice in Accra said, “the challenge in the near term is to close the gap between the promise of economic integration and the lived experiences of the region’s peoples and progress in this project will be marked at least in part by how much governments and citizens of the Community not only feel free to utilize the Court of Justice as an aid in protecting and enforcing the legal obligations of the Community but also in how they collaborate in building habits of compliance with these obligations..”

Godspeed

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