ECOWAS Court comes of age

The court session offered members of staff and the public the opportunity to express their appreciation to the retiring judges for their service to the community and to say farewell, as they bowed out of the bench of the ECOWAS Court of Justice.The ECOWAS Court of Justice is one of the key institutions of the […]

The court session offered members of staff and the public the opportunity to express their appreciation to the retiring judges for their service to the community and to say farewell, as they bowed out of the bench of the ECOWAS Court of Justice.
The ECOWAS Court of Justice is one of the key institutions of the community.
Already, a new generation of members of the court was recently appointed by the Authority of Heads of State and Government of ECOWAS and the swearing-in ceremony of seven new judges appointed to the court is scheduled to take place on Wednesday, June 18 at Accra. The oath will be administered before the President of Ghana, John Dramani Maham.
Some of the retired judges have been on the bench of the court since 200 while others were there since 2009.
Daily Trust recalls that seven pioneer judges of the court were sworn into office on January 30, 2001 in Bamako, Mali, by the then Chairman of the Authority of Heads of State and Government, President Alpha Oumar Konare. Three of the pioneer judges now retiring are Justice Awa Nana Daboya (Togo) Justice Hansine N. Donli (Nigeria) and Justice Anthony Alfred Benin (Ghana). Unfortunately, the court lost Justice Soumana Dirarou Sidibe (Niger) who was due to retire November 2011. The other three pioneer judges, Justice Aminata Malle Sanogo (Mali), Justice Barthelemy Toe (Burkina Faso) and Justice EI-Mansour Tall (Senegal) retired from the service of the court in February, 2009.
The second generation judges of the court, comprising of  Justice Benfeito Mosso Ramos (Cape Verde), Justice Clotilde Nuogbode Medegan ( Benin ) and Justice Eliam M. Potey ( Cote D’Ivoire) were sworn into office on February 10, 2009 in Abuja Nigeria, by late President Umaru Musa Yar’ Adua, the then Chairman of the Authority of Heads of State and Government of ECOWAS.
It cannot be over-emphasised that the retired judges built the court from scratch, and nurtured it to maturity.
According to the Chief Registrar of the court, Mr. Tony Anene Maidoh, the greatest achievement of the court lies in the profundity of its jurisprudence. “By their judicial pronouncements, their lordships have placed ECOWAS on the world map and earned a reputation as a virile and independent regional court in the West African sub region.
“The judicial statistics of the court are also quite impressive. Since the inception of the court, a total of 174 cases have been lodged before it. The court has held a total of 525 court sessions. It has delivered a total of 177 decisions; comprising 82 rulings, 80 judgments, 12 review decisions and three advisory opinions. There are 32 pending cases before the court”, he said.
Although the primary mandate of the ECOWAS Court of Justice is the interpretation and application of ECOWAS Community texts, the court has been recognised internationally for its human rights jurisprudence.
Justice Hansine Donli, was the first president of the court, from January 2001 – January 2007,  and as the Dean of the Court from February 2009 till date. The late Justice Soumana Sidibe was the vice president of this court from January 2004 – January 2007. Justice Anthony Benin also served as the vice president of the court from January 2007 – February 2009. Justice Awa Nana Daboya has been the President of the Court since February 10, 2009 while Hon. Justice Benfeito Mosso Ramos has been the vice president since February 2009.
At the court hearing of June 10, 2014, the outgoing judges delivered their last judgments. Among them, three pioneer judges: Justice Awa Nana Daboya (Togo), Justice Hansine N. Donli (Nigeria) and Justice Alfred Anthony Benin (Ghana) and their other three colleagues, Justice Clotilde Medegan-Nougbode (Benin), Justice Benfeito Mosso Ramos (Cape Verde) and Justice Eliam Monsedjoueni Potey (Cote d’Ivoire).
The renewal of the entire membership of the court was approved at the 44th Ordinary Session of the Authority of Heads of State and Government of ECOWAS, at Yamoussoukro, Cote d’Ivoire.
Six court decisions were made by the judges at the end of the session in connection with the following cases: Moukhtah Ibrahim Aminu v. Government of the Jigawa State of Nigeria & 3 Others ; Deyda Hydara & 1 Other v. The Gambia ; Maimuna Abdulmumuni v. Federal Republic of Nigeria & 2 Others; Registered Trustees of Avocats Sans Frontieres v. Federal Republic of Nigeria & 1 Other; Modupe Dorcas Afolalu v. Federal Republic of Nigeria ; and finally, Registered Trustees of the Socio-Economic Rights & Accountability Project (SERAP) & 10 Others v. Federal Republic of Nigeria & 4 Others.
For the Modupe Dorcas Afolalu case, the court ordered Nigeria to pay to the applicant the sum of N10, 000,000 (ten million naira) in reparation for the harm done; in the Deyda Hydara case, the court
awarded the USD 50,000 (applicant fifty thousand us dollars ) in damages and $10,000 (ten thousand us dollars) in costs; and the court ordered Nigeria to pay to Maimuna Abdulmumuni N5,000,000 (five million naira) in reparation for the harms suffered and N500,000 (five hundred thousand naira) for costs.
The last court session brings to a close 13 years of duty performed by the pioneer judges; they all put their expertise and personal qualities at the service of ECOWAS.
In a chat with one of the jurists, Justice Donli she said that she had no regrets. “I did all I could do with all my abilities and by the grace of God I achieved all that I achieved during my tenure.
On the level of awareness of the court she said that she could never be satisfied with the level of awareness,  adding that they made all efforts to visit all the member states to inform them about the court, its objectives and the need for citizens who are aggrieved to access the court.
One of the achievements, according to her was that instead of the member states representing the citizens, “we proposed and it was approved that individuals should access the court directly, that is a great achievement and it was magnanimous on the part of the heads of state to have approved that citizens of ECOWAS should access the court directly even in respect of violation of human rights that occur in any member state without first exhausting its local remedy.”