ECOWAS Court decries non-enforcement of rulings by member States

 

 

ECOWAS building..

The President of ECOWAS Community Court of Justice, Edward Amoako Asante has decried the non-enforcement of the court’s judgments by member states, which he says is less than 30 percent.

Justice Asante made this known in Banjul, the Gambia capital in his closing remarks at the Court’s International Conference with the theme ‘ECOWAS Zero Tolerance for Unconstitutional Change of Government’.

According to him, six member states are yet to appoint competent National Authority on the enforcement of the judgments of the court.

“It is however of great concern to us that six of our member states, namely Benin Republic, Cape Verde, Guinea Bissau, Liberia, Niger and Sierra Leone are yet to appoint their Competent National Authorities for the enforcement of the judgments of the court, while the other nine members have appointed.”

“We will therefore continue to appeal to the governments of these six member countries to do that for us.” he said.

Justice Asante also urged all member states to domesticate the ECOWAS Revised Treaty and Protocol on the court to create the enabling legal environment for enforcement of the judgments of the community by the national court of member states.

“The current compliance rate, which is less than thirty percent, of the judgments of the court is not encouraging and is capable of eroding public confidence in the court,” he pointed out.

He added that there was an urgent need to review and strengthen the judgment enforcement mechanism of the court.