West Africa: 'ECOWAS Court Not an Appeal Court Over Domestics'
BY ALIEU CEESAY, 26 JULY 2013A top official at the ECOWAS Court has stressed that the Court is not an appeal one over domestic courts, saying it respects its mandate and the sovereignty of the Member States. Tony Anene-Maidoh, chief registrar at the ECOWAS Court of Justice, was speaking Thursday at the Alliance Franco during a press conference and book exhibition convened by the said sub-regional justice institution in collaboration with the Ministry of Trade and Regional Integration. Anene-Maidoh and two other senior officials of the Court are currently in the country on a media sensitisation campign about the existence and functions of this sub-regional legal institution.
He explained that the visit is a programme that has been ongoing for quite a while at the ECOWAS Court of Justice. "We want to reach community citizens in The Gambia at the grassroots, but we know that we cannot achieve that purpose without the help of the media," he stated.
The programme, he said, is intended to create awareness about the mandate of the Court, its jurisdiction/competence and activities. "Every Gambian national is a community citizen of ECOWAS, which was founded in 1975. The ECOWAS Court of Justice under Article 6 of the Revised Treaty is listed as one of the institutions of the bloc," he stated. "When the Court was conceived, it was supposed to be an inter-state court, in the sense that only member states will come to it. It was established as the judicial organ of ECOWAS and it also had additional responsibility of giving an advisory opinion to members states and institutions of the community," he stated further. According to him, the court also has the mandate in the 1993 Revised Treaty, to decide on cases of human rights violations in member states. "The first case was registered at the Court in 2003 from Nigeria," he disclosed, indicating that the Court has registered 153 cases since then. The chief registrar also explained that the Court is an independent body that does not take instructions from any institution of ECOWAS even though administratively, they are like any other institutions of the bloc. "It is important to point out that the Court is not an affiliate over domestic courts of member states. So if you go to the Supreme Court of The Gambia and a decision is given against you, you cannot say I want to appeal to the ECOWAS Court because I am not satisfied with the decision of the Supreme Court of The Gambia. This is because we don't have jurisdiction. We collaborate with domestic courts of member states," he concluded.
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