In the same vein, the Article 12 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights stipulates that: "(2) Everyone shall be free to leave any country, including his own. (3)The above-mentioned rights shall not be subject to any restrictions except when they are provided in the law and are necessary to protect national security, public order, public health or morals or the rights and freedoms of others, and are consistent with the other rights recognized in the present Covenant." (Bold is ours) Article 1 (h) of ECOWAS Supplementary Protocol A/SP1/12/01, on Democracy and Good Governance, determines that: "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." In addition to the above provisions, it should be noted that one of the fundamental ideas of ECOWAS, of which the Defendant State is a member, is that of "a borderless ECOWAS", wherefore the management of immigration and borders is deeply rooted in the overall raison d'être of the Community. The ECOWAS, anchored in the 1975 Treaty, with the aim of progressively strengthening cooperation between Member States through the free movement of goods, capital and people, and thus helping to consolidate the peace, stability and security of the region, adopted the Protocol on the Free Movement of Persons, Residence and Establishment (1979), which was later expanded by four supplementary protocols. The aforementioned Protocol, the ECOWAS Revised Treaty of 1993 and the Protocol on the Mechanism for Conflict Prevention, Management, Resolution, Peace-keeping and Security (1999), form the basis of the legal framework for the management of immigration and the borders within ECOWAS. Thus, the ECOWAS Revised Treaty (1993) provides that "abolition, among Member States, of customs duties levied on imports and exports, and the abolition, among 18