xii. The Republic of Mali became a Party to the Charter on 21 October 1986 and to the Protocol on 25 January 2004. It deposited the Declaration through which it accepted the jurisdiction of the Court to accept cases from individuals and NGOs on 19 February 2010. xiii. The Republic of Cabo Verde became a Party to the Charter on 6 August 1987. It is not a Party to the Protocol and has, therefore, not deposited the Declaration. xiv. The Republic of Sierra Leone became a Party to the Charter on 21 October 1986. It is not a Party to the Protocol and has, therefore, not deposited the Declaration. xv. The Republic of Guinea Bissau became a Party to the Charter on 21 October 1986 and to the Protocol on 2 November 2021. It deposited the Declaration on 2 November 2021 thereby accepting the jurisdiction of the Court to accept cases from individuals and NGOs. II. SUBJECT OF THE APPLICATION A. Facts of the matter 3. The Applicants allege that following an extraordinary summit of the Heads of States and Governments, the Chief Justices of ECOWAS member States, acting in their capacity as the “Community’s Judicial Service Commission”, proposed an amendment to Protocol A/P.1/7/79 on the ECOWAS Community Court of Justice to incorporate the requirement of exhaustion of domestic remedies as a prerequisite for the admissibility of cases. 4. The Applicants contend that the proposal to incorporate the requirement for the exhaustion of domestic remedies would procedurally and substantively deprive them of their fundamental rights enshrined in the Charter and other international human rights instruments. 5