before it within the confines of the rules of the international law which the Member
States have subscribed to. In other words, it is a consistently held principle that the
Court does not handle disputes concerning the domestic law of the Member States
of ECOWAS. For illustrative purposes, one may cite Judgment of the Court dated
24 April 2015 on Bodjona v. Republic of Togo, §37, where it is clearly stated that:
“…In examining the cases brought before it, the ECOWAS Court of Justice shall
refer exclusively to the norms of international law as binding on the Member
States which have subscribed thereto.”
23. It follows therefore that in its analysis, the Court shall set aside every reference
made to the Sierra Leone domestic law, be it the Constitution of Sierra Leone; it
will rather devote its attention to the international instruments invoked by the
Applicants, notably the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (its Article
5) and of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (its Articles 5, 7, 14 and 23),
which, taken together, do guarantee human dignity, right to fair trial, right to
property, and the right to work under fair and satisfactory conditions.
24. In considering the facts of the case, the Court finds that the liquidation process
initiated by the State of Sierra Leone does not in any constitute a violation of any
of the rights invoked by the Applicants. At any rate, it is established from the
proceedings that the liquidation of Sierra National Airlines was ordered in 2006 by
the Government of Sierra Leone, and the decision was adopted by Parliament some
months after.
25. In 2010, the Ministry of Labour and Social Security of Sierra Leone evaluated
the terminal and severance benefits at 17,177,644,816.00 Leones, with the
payment to beneficiaries (with the exception of the training personnel of the Sierra
National Airlines) completely made on 2 August 2010, and the beneficiaries made
to acknowledge receipt of payment, with a pledge to put a definitive end to any
existing dispute between them and the State.
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