The Admissibility of Subregional Courts’ Decisions before the African Commission. ..
245
continent.14 The revised ECOWAS Treaty re-established the ECOWAS
Community Court of Justice together with seven other organs of the
Community.15
The Protocol on the ECOWAS Court did not confer human rights jurisdiction
on the Court.16 The Court acquired jurisdiction on human rights in 2005 by a
Supplementary Protocol amending the establishing Protocol of 1991.17 The
human rights jurisdiction of the ECOWAS Court is the power to hear cases for
violations of ‘the so-called Community rights endowed on ECOWAS citizens’
and the power of the Court to receive cases on violations of the African
Charter.18 The former is similar with the inter-state complaint mechanism of the
African Charter as ‘the ECOWAS Commission acquires access to bring human
rights case against a member state where the state fails to perform its human
rights obligations under the ECOWAS legal regime.’19
The ECOWAS Court of Justice's jurisdiction on human rights is largely due
to the recognition that human rights and access to justice in the sub-region are
fundamental values of the ECOWAS Community enshrined in Articles 4(g),
56(2) and 63(2) of the 1993 Revised ECOWAS Treaty and Articles 9(4) and
10(d) of the 2005 supplementary protocol.20 Individuals can also bring
complaints that allege violation of the African Charter and other human rights
instruments before the ECOWAS Court.21 The following examples illustrate this
point.
14
The Preamble to the Treaty of ECOWAS, adopted by the Heads of State and
Government of the Member States of ECOWAS in Cotonou on 24 July 1993. The
preamble refers to African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights and the 1991
Declaration on Political Principles of the Economic Community of West African
States.
15 Art 6(1)(e) & art 15, the Treaty of ECOWAS. See A Banjo ‘The ECOWAS Court and
the politics of access to justice in West Africa’ (2007) 32 Africa Development 73.
16 Protocol A/P/1/7/91 on the Community Court of Justice adopted on 6 July 1991 in
Lagos, Nigeria and entered into force on 5 November 1996.
17 Supplementary Protocol A/SP1/01/05 to Protocol on the Community Court of Justice
(1991) adopted in 2005 which provisionally came into force upon signature in 2005,
reproduced in Ebobrah & Tanoh, supra note 6, p. 199.
18 Enyinna S. Nwauche ‘Regional economic communities and human rights in West
Africa and the African Arabic countries’ in Anton Bosl & Joseph Diescho (eds)
(2009) Human rights in Africa: Legal perspectives on their protection and promotion
332.
19 Ebobrah, supra note 12, p. 314.
20 Muhammed Tawfik Ladan (2009), Introduction to ECOWAS Community Law and
Practice: Integration, Migration, Human Rights, Access to Justice, Peace and
Security (Zaria: The Ahamdu Bello University Press), p. 269-280.
21 See Nwauche , supra note 18, p. 332; Ebobrah , supra note 12, p. 314.