A court case filed by the Committee for Defence of Human Rights (CDHR) challenging the 2016 decision of the Heads of State and Government of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to accede to the request by Morocco, a country geographically located in North Africa, to join the organization of the West Africa sub-region has been dismissed by Community’s Court of Justice.
A judgment read by the judge rapporteur, Gberi-Be Ouattara when dismissing the case as inadmissible said the CDHR’s approaching the court was not in line with Article 10 (b) on access to the court and that the non-governmental organization is incompetent to institute the action.
In determining the legal capacity of the NGO to approach the Court for an assessment of the legality of action in relation to the legal texts of the ECOWAS Community, the court noted that within the purview of Article 10 (b) which provides that only “Member States, the Council of Ministers and the Executive Secretary (ECOWAS Commission) in proceeding for the determination of the legality of an action in relation to any Community texts.
The judge also cited that an applicant justifies being a victim of the alleged violation, that the application must not be anonymous, and lastly, that the matter is not before another international court as the three essential conditions considered before reaching the admissibility judgment against the NGO.
Consequently, the Court dismissed the application of the NGO on the grounds that it lacked the legal capacity and interest to file such matter since it was neither part of a Member State, Council of Ministers nor ECOWAS Commission.
In the initiating application with suit number ECW/CCJ/APP/30/18 filed on July 26, 2018, Sola Egbeyinka, the lawyer representing the CDHR, told the court to hold both respondents liable for the violation of the ECOWAS Treaty, the ECOWAS Protocol on Democracy and Good governance, the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
The judgment which was delivered during the ongoing external session of the court in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire also had Edward Amoako Asante as the presiding judge and Dupe Atoki as a member.
