13. The Court is of the view that the argument concerning res judicata can only succeed when it is established that the Application brought before it is essentially the same as another one already satisfactorily decided upon before a competent domestic court. 14. The Court now seeks to find out whether, on the one hand, the allegations of violation of the Charter and the corresponding reliefs sought in the instant case are essentially the same as the alleged violations of the Constitution of Nigeria and the reliefs sought before the High Court judge and on the other hand, whether the Application, which is essentially the same, has been satisfactory dealt with before the domestic court. 15. One may ask whether an application seeking to safeguard fundamental human rights constitutionally recognized and guaranteed before a judge at the domestic court may be considered as analogous with another application seeking to safeguard human rights internationally recognised and guaranteed before the Court of Justice of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). 16. In that regard, the Court points out that by extending its jurisdiction to cover cases of human rights violation which occur in each Member State, ECOWAS sanctioned the guarantee, at the Community level, of the obligations subscribed to by its Member States at the African and international levels. This is apparent in Article 1, paragraph (h) of the 21 of December 2001 Protocol A/SP1/12/01 on Democracy and Good Governance, which came into force on 20 February 2008 and which provides that “The rights set up in the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights and other international instruments shall be guaranteed in each of the ECOWAS Member States; each individual organization shall be free to have recourse to the common or civil law courts, a court of special jurisdiction, or any other national institution established within the framework of an international instrument on Human rights, to ensure the protection of his/her rights.” Even though it may not have had explicitly in view the guarantee of rights constitutionally set out in each Member State, the above-cited provision sanctioned the guarantee of human rights as a principle of constitutional convergence. Hence, the Community Court’s function of safeguarding and protecting human rights is carried out with respect to the international human rights instruments and the 6