ECOWAS Court Confronts Enforcement Crisis as Member States Disregard Regional Judgments
The ECOWAS Court of Justice faces mounting challenges as member states, including Nigeria, routinely ignore its rulings, prompting Nigeria's Chief Justice to call for clearer enforcement guidelines across the 15-nation bloc.
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The Economic Community of West African States Court of Justice is grappling with a fundamental crisis of authority as member states across the region systematically fail to enforce its judgments, undermining the credibility of West Africa's premier supranational judicial institution.
During a visit to Nigeria's Supreme Court headquarters in Abuja, ECOWAS Court President Justice Edward Amoako Asante acknowledged the enforcement deficit that has plagued the regional tribunal since its establishment. Justice Goncalves, representing the court's leadership, stated the delegation sought "to solicit the support of the CJN to ensure the enforcement of judgements of the ECOWAS Court in Nigeria," according to Vanguard News.
The admission represents a rare public acknowledgment of institutional weakness for a court designed to serve as the judicial backbone of regional integration among ECOWAS's 15 member states. The court, established under the 1991 ECOWAS Treaty, possesses jurisdiction over human rights violations, treaty interpretation, and disputes between member states and community institutions.
Call for Standardized Enforcement Framework
Nigeria's Chief Justice Kudirat Kekere-Ekun responded to the court's concerns by challenging ECOWAS judicial leadership to develop comprehensive enforcement guidelines that could be uniformly applied across member states. According to This Day, Justice Kekere-Ekun "advised the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Court of Justice to come up with" standardized protocols for judgment implementation.
The CJN's recommendation addresses a structural gap in the ECOWAS legal architecture. While the community court can issue binding judgments under Article 15(4) of the Supplementary Protocol, the treaty framework provides limited mechanisms for compelling member states to comply with adverse rulings. National courts serve as the primary enforcement vehicles, creating inconsistency when domestic judiciaries prove reluctant to execute regional decisions.
Nigeria's own record on ECOWAS judgment enforcement has been mixed. The country hosts the court's headquarters in Abuja but has faced criticism for delayed implementation of rulings, particularly in cases involving security force abuses and detention without trial. The 2008 landmark case of Hadijatou Mani Koraou v. Niger, which established slavery as a human rights violation under ECOWAS law, took years to fully enforce despite the court's unambiguous ruling.
Regional Pattern of Non-Compliance
The enforcement challenge extends well beyond Nigeria. Multiple ECOWAS member states have developed reputations for disregarding court decisions that conflict with perceived national interests or government policies. Cases involving electoral disputes, media freedom, and arbitrary detention frequently encounter resistance when governments face unfavorable judgments.
The pattern mirrors enforcement difficulties experienced by other regional courts across Africa. The East African Court of Justice and the Southern African Development Community Tribunal have both confronted member state defiance, with the SADC Tribunal suspended in 2014 following Zimbabwe's refusal to comply with land reform rulings.
Legal scholars have identified several factors contributing to weak enforcement of supranational court decisions in Africa. These include limited public awareness of regional court judgments, insufficient political will among member state governments, and the absence of meaningful sanctions for non-compliance within regional treaty frameworks.
Implications for Regional Integration
The enforcement crisis carries significant implications for ECOWAS's broader integration agenda. The community court serves as a critical institution for harmonizing legal standards across West Africa's diverse legal systems, which include common law, civil law, and Islamic law traditions. Without reliable enforcement mechanisms, the court's ability to develop coherent regional jurisprudence remains constrained.
The African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights, which operates at the continental level, has similarly struggled with implementation challenges. Only a fraction of its judgments have been fully executed by respondent states, according to monitoring by civil society organizations.
Justice Kekere-Ekun's call for standardized guidelines could provide a template for addressing these systemic weaknesses. Potential reforms might include establishing specialized enforcement units within national judiciaries, creating monitoring mechanisms to track compliance, and developing escalation procedures for persistent non-compliance.
The outcome of discussions between Nigeria's judiciary and ECOWAS Court leadership may influence enforcement practices across the region. As the bloc's largest economy and most populous member, Nigeria's approach to implementing regional court decisions often sets precedents that other member states follow. Whether the proposed guidelines will translate into meaningful improvements in judgment enforcement remains to be tested through future cases and member state cooperation.