Roughly 131 out of over 400 judgments delivered by the ECOWAS Community Court of Justice (CCJ) have not been enforced.
The court says there are many challenges that are preventing the enforcement of its judgments.
Oluwatosin Nguher, a senior research officer at the CCJ, speaking at a sensitisation event for law students at the University of Ghana, described a lack of political will by ECOWAS member states to enforce these judgments.
The sensitisation formed part of sustained efforts by the Court to engage individuals and institutions with the specific objective of closing the yawning gap in knowledge of the court by ECOWAS citizens, including critical stakeholders.
The students and participants were taken through the overview of the CCJ, practices and procedures of the Court, including filing of cases and representation, human rights and the Court’s jurisdiction.
Domesticate the protocols
Tosin Nguher said the Court, as the primary judicial organ of ECOWAS with a mandate to dispense justice in the protection of human rights, has a non-peculiar challenge of enforcement of its judgments.
“This is largely because enforcement power is vetted in member states and not the court,” she said.
Member states and other stakeholders such as lawyers, NGOs, judges and Community citizens must hold member states accountable to their international obligations, she argued.
Nguher said the ECOWAS Court is not in conflict with the domestic courts: rather, their relationship is complementary. The senior research officer said the enforcement of decisions suffers from non-involvement of human rights institutions.
“Non-ratification and domestication of protocols of the court is a challenge,” she added.
She said more sensitisation needs to be carried out on member states’ judicial organ to build capacity on Community laws and that the same should be done with the legislature to enable domestication of the Community laws.
Ms Nguher further stressed that low enforcement could make it difficult for citizens of ECOWAS to enjoy the full benefits of the Court as envisioned by the ECOWAS Treaty.
“We are not only talking in terms of only Ghana, but all the member states that have outstanding judgments yet to be implemented. We are imploring all member states to do the needful,” she said.
“If the Court does its work by delivering judgments and the judgments are not implemented, it does not give the needed efficacy to the Court,” she said.
Engagement
Justice Edward Amoako Asante, the president of the CCJ, said the six-day sensitisation campaign was to engage with stakeholders on various aspects of the Court.
He said during the period, the CCJ team interacted with law students, the Office of the Attorney General and Ministry of Justice and the Ghana Bar Association.
The CCJ president said the campaign had three components: mainly media appearances, advocacy, engagement with lawyers and law students, and a stakeholder meeting with a cross-section of ECOWAS citizens.
Justice Asante said the campaign had been carefully structured to ensure that all segments of the Court’s stakeholders were targeted with appropriate information on the Court, its mandate, jurisdiction, procedures before the Court, enforcement of its decisions, challenges and relationships with the national courts of member states.
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