Some lawyers recently called for citizens’ intervention to save the Community Court of Justice (CCJ) also known as ECOWAS Court
Some lawyers recently called for citizens’ intervention to save the Community Court of Justice also known as ECOWAS Court from moves to whittle down its powers. Established in 1991 with an office in Abuja,Since its existence, the decisions of the ECOWAS Court of Justice have been disobeyed by member-States that established it. Rather than seek means of enforcement and compliance, there is a fresh push for mandatory internal resolution of disputes before approaching the ECOWAS court.
Non-enforcement of CCJ’s decisions has constituted a serious threat to the regional court in recent years. A recent report revealed that a total of 150 judgments passed by the court are yet to be enforced by member-countries. Of this number, Nigeria topped the list with 43 unenforced judgements, followed by the Republic of Togo with 23 and Guinea with 14.
According to the protocol establishing it, there is no need for exhaustion of domestic remedies before applying to the court. However, applications cannot be made to the court while the same matter is pending before another international court. As slowly as the national judicial system operates, many may align with it rather than financing a regional court that is neglected by the same countries that set it up.
“It is, of course, a misconception to take the machete of exhaustion of domestic remedies to a regional court of Justice. Imposing the doctrine on the Court of Justice will render it both irrelevant and impotent,” he said. In practical reality, the proposal has already killed the attainment of justice before the conception, he said. Such a proposal coming from Chief Justices, Okutepa said, is a suggestion that there should not be an ECOWAS court because the aim of justice is not to put a bottleneck on the path of justice.
According to him, the court has so far evolved strongly to meet community citizens’ demands as an alternative to failing institutions in member states as it provides an alternative to citizens that desire greater effectiveness in justice delivery. He described as embarrassing the act of calling the bluff of the court by the host country. “For instance, it was the Tanzanian government that firstly made the move to withdraw from the African Court on the simple reason that one of its decisions was not favourable to it,” he said.Before flagging, please keep in mind that Disqus does not moderate communities. Your username will be shown to the moderator, so you should only flag this comment for one of the reasons listed above.
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