CHAPTER 1
PRINCIPLES
The provisions of this chapter complement and clarify the principles set out in Article 2 of the Protocol of 10
December 1999.
SECTION I: CONSTITUTIONAL CONVERGENCE PRINCIPLES
Article 1 :
The following shall be declared as constitutional principles shared by all Member States:
a) - Separation of powers - the Executive, Legislative and Judiciary.
- Empowerment and strengthening of parliaments and guarantee of parliamentary immunity.
- Independence of the Judiciary: Judges shall be independent in the discharge of their duties.
- The freedom of the members of the Bar shall be guaranteed; without prejudice to their penal or
disciplinary responsibility in the event of contempt of court or breaches of the common law.
b) Every accession to power must be made through free, fair and transparent elections.
c) Zero tolerance for power obtained or maintained by unconstitutional means.
d) Popular participation in decision-making, strict adherence to democratic principles and decentralisation
of power at all levels of governance.
e) The armed forces must be apolitical and must be under the command of a legally constituted political
authority; no serving member of the armed forces may seek to run for elective political.
f) Secularism and neutrality of the State in all matters relating to religion; freedom for each individual to
practise, within the limits of existing laws, the religion of his/her choice everywhere on the national territory.
The secularism shall extend to all parts of the State, but shall not deprive the State of the right to regulate,
with due respect to human rights, the different religions practised on the national territory or to intervene
when law and order break down as a result of any religious activity.
g) The State and all its institutions belong to all the citizens; therefore none of their decisions and actions
shall involve any form of discrimination, be it on an ethnic, racial, religion or regional basis.
h) The rights set out in the African Charter on Human and People's Rights and other international
instruments shall be guaranteed in each of the ECOWAS Member States; each individual or organisation
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.
In the absence of a court of special jurisdiction, the present Supplementary Protocol shall be regarded as
giving the necessary powers to common or civil law judicial bodies.
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