PROPOSAL ON ECONOMIC COMMUNITY OF WEST AFRICAN STATE (ECOWAS) AND THE CHALLENGE OF REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT. A STUDY OF THE COMMUNITY COURT OF JUSTICS

INTRODUCTION

Countries wish to join their economies for various reasons, some of which include attraction of foreign investment, enhancing cooperation, fostering security and generally attaining economic development. With these aims in mind, governments sign and become members of multiple regional integration schemes. However, some of these integration schemes simply reflect the desire but not always the political will to capture the economic gains and international negotiating strength that regionalization can bring.8 Africa is not peculiar in this respect.[1] A number of initiatives have been launched in the continent to bring economic and political integration. These integration efforts have been undertaken concurrently at continental and regional levels. On the continental level, the effort of integration started with the adoption of the OAU Charter in 1963 which envisions initiatives to integrate the Africa region for the promotion of economic and social development.

The 1975 ECOWAS Treaty included a mandate for a Community Court of Justice (CCJ) to adjudicate disputes related to the interpretation and operation of the Treaty, as revised in 1993. The details for the operation of the Court were established by the 1991 Protocol on the Community Court of Justice signed by the ECOWAS High Contracting Parties. The Court became operational in December 2000. Seven judges sit on the Court, each serving a five-year term. No two judges can be nationals of the same state.[2] The Community Court of Justice of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS Court) is an increasingly active and bold adjudicator of human rights. Since acquiring jurisdiction over human rights complaints in 2005, the ECOWAS Court has issued numerous decisions condemning human rights violations by the member states of the Economic Community of West African States (Community).[3] Among this Court’s path-breaking cases are judgments against Niger for condoning modern forms of slavery and against Nigeria for impeding the right to free basic education for all children. The ECOWAS Court also has broad access and standing rules that permit individuals and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) to bypass national courts and file suits directly with the Court. Although the Court is generally careful in the proof that it requires of complainants and in the remedies that it demands of governments, it has not shied away from politically courageous decisions, such as rulings against the Gambia for the torture of journalists and against Nigeria for failing to regulate multinational companies that have degraded the environment of the oil-rich Niger Delta. Our primary goal in this article is to explain how an international tribunal, initially established to help build a common market, was redeployed as a human rights court. In particular, we ask why West African governments, which set up the ECOWAS Court in a way that has allowed persistent flouting of Community economic rules, later delegated to ECOWAS judges remarkably far-reaching human rights jurisdiction. The ECOWAS Court’s transformation is surprising in many ways. By all accounts, ECOWAS has made little progress toward its professed goal of regional economic integration. Trade flows among West African nations remain extremely low; tariffs, customs regulations, nontariff barriers, and roadblocks hinder cross-border economic transactions;[4] and member states have yet to challenge barriers to intraregional trade before the ECOWAS Court. If our story ended here, with a new international court struggling for relevance, few would be surprised. However, our story takes a sharp and unexpected turn in 2005 with an expansion of the Court’s jurisdiction to include human rights complaints by private litigants.[5]

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

The Community Court of Justice of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS Court) is an increasingly active and bold adjudicator of human rights. Since acquiring jurisdiction over human rights complaints in 2005, the ECOWAS Court has issued numerous decisions condemning human rights violations by the member states of the Economic Community of West African States (Community).[6] Among this Court’s path-breaking cases[7] are judgments against Niger for condoning modern forms of slavery and against Nigeria for impeding the right to free basic education for all children. The ECOWAS Court also has broad access and standing rules that permit individuals and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) to bypass national courts and file suits directly with the Court. Although the Court is generally careful in the proof that it requires of complainants and in the remedies that it demands of governments, it has not shied away from politically courageous decisions, such as rulings against the Gambia for the torture of journalists and against Nigeria for failing to regulate multinational companies that have degraded the environment of the oil-rich Niger Delta. Our primary goal in this article is to explain how an international tribunal, initially established to help build a common market, was redeployed as a human rights court. In particular, we ask why West African governments, which set up the ECOWAS Court in a way that has allowed persistent flouting of Community economic rules, later delegated to ECOWAS judges remarkably far-reaching human rights jurisdiction. The ECOWAS Court’s transformation is surprising in many ways. By all accounts, ECOWAS has made little progress toward its professed goal of regional economic integration. Trade flows among West African nations remain extremely low; tariffs, customs regulations, nontariff barriers, and roadblocks hinder cross-border economic transactions;[8] and member states have yet to challenge barriers to intraregional trade before the ECOWAS Court. If our story ended here, with a new international court struggling for relevance, few would be surprised. However, our story takes a sharp and unexpected turn in 2005 with an expansion of the Court’s jurisdiction to include human rights complaints by private litigants.

[1] (Olayiwola and Osabuohien, 2012)

[2] The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Community Court of Justice has accepted the submission of individual complaints for human rights violations since 2005

[3] Fifteen nations are currently members of ECOWAS: Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Coˆte d’Ivoire, the Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, and Togo

[4] S. K. B. Asante, Economic Community of West African States, in THE OXFORD COMPANION TO POLITICS OF THE WORLD 233, 234 ( Joe¨l Krieger ed., 2d ed. 2001).

[5] S. K. B. Asante, Economic Community of West African States, in THE OXFORD COMPANION TO POLITICS OF THE WORLD 233, 234 ( Joe¨l Krieger ed., 2d ed. 2001).

[6] 1 Fifteen nations are currently members of ECOWAS: Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Coˆte d’Ivoire, the Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, and Togo

[7] A list of all judgments and rulings of the ECOWAS Court, as well as copies of selected decisions, are available on the Court’s website. ECOWAS Community Court of Justice, List of Decided Cases from 2004 Till Date, at http://www.courtecowas.org/site2012/index.php?option!com_content&view!article&id!157&Itemid!27. The first five years of judgments and rulings have been published in an official reporter, but it is not widely available. 2004 –2009 COMMUNITY COURT OF JUSTICE, ECOWAS LAW REPORT (2011).

[8] S. K. B. Asante, Economic Community of West African States, in THE OXFORD COMPANION TO POLITICS OF THE WORLD 233, 234 ( Joe¨l Krieger ed., 2d ed. 2001).

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