Professor Friday Chijioke Nwoke, a law professor at a Nigerian university, has bemoaned the low level of enforcement of regional court decisions on the state of human rights in the region, blaming it on the twin problems of regional leaders’ lack of political will and citizens’ legal capacity to approach the court.
Professor Nwoke blamed Member States in a paper presented at the Community Court’s ongoing international conference in Praia, Cape Verde, for the Court’s inability to exercise its mandate as an interstate court for the interpretation of Community texts.
Professor Nwoke, a former Vice President of the ECOWAS Court, stated that Member States with the ability to seek redress on behalf of Community citizens against other states for failure to fulfill their Community obligations as envisaged in the existing texts are unwilling to do so or to compel the defaulting states to fulfill their obligations.
In his paper, which was his contribution to the discussion on Regional Integration and Regional Human Rights Protection, he urged Member States to demonstrate greater commitment by demonstrating the necessary political will to drive the process in order to fulfill their Community and international obligations.
Prof Nwoke, who teaches law at the University of Jos, described regional human rights protection as a critical pillar of the regional integration process and praised the ECOWAS Court for its remarkable achievement in sub-regional human rights protection.
He also praised the Court for its commendable efforts to harmonize human rights principles throughout the region, noting that “every decision taken to enhance the integrative process is likely to impact the human rights of the people of the region.”
“One of the realities of the modern international legal order is the recognition of human rights as an element of the object of interstate relations: the attitude of the state towards its citizens is no longer a matter of exclusively internal jurisdiction,” he added.
In regard to decision implementation, the Professor cited Article 26 of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties of 1969, which states that “every treaty in force is binding on parties to the treaty and must be executed in good faith.”
He cited the court’s ruling in Musa Saidykhan v. Republic of the Gambia, which stated: “ECOWAS is a supranational authority created by the Member States wherein they expressly delegated some of their sovereign powers to ECOWAS to act in their common interest.”
As a result, in areas where Member States have delegated some of their sovereign powers to ECOWAS, ECOWAS rules supersede those of individual Member States if they are incompatible.
“The Treaty further clarified the status of the ECOWAS Treaty and instruments in Member States by providing that the decisions of the Authority of Heads of States shall be binding on Member States and institutions of the community,” he added.
Beyond the legal aspect, the former Vice President claimed that Member States lacked orientation on how to approach international issues properly, including compliance with international obligations, and urged all signed international legal documents to be domesticated as soon as possible.
“With regards to regional integration within the ECOWAS sub-region, the common goal is the economic transformation and development (as) the Revised Treaty emphasized the harmonization of the laws, practices and policies in the areas of common activity where integration is sought.
He added that “the ECOWAS Revised Treaty makes specific reference to the promotion of human rights under the African Charter as an objective or fundamental principle of the economic bloc.”
He also stated that the ECOWAS Protocol on Democracy and Good Governance emphasizes human rights protection as a cornerstone/pillar of economic integration.
Participants at the conference, which was organized with the help of the Raoul Wallenberg Institute in Sweden, include representatives from academia, the judiciary, civil society, and the heads of ECOWAS national units in Member States.
