ECOWAS court records 678 cases, delivers 402 judgments in 22 years

The Economic Court of Justice has received a total of 678 cases from member countries since its inception.

It has also delivered judgment on 402.

The ECOWAS court was founded in 2001 to uphold and apply principles of equity in interpreting and applying the provisions of the Revised Treaty, along with other legal instruments adopted by member countries.

The court is located in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.

In a report by the Court Registry’s department, which was sighted by our correspondent on Friday, the court has held a total of 1440 proceedings since 2001 and has a total of 168 pending cases.

The report partly read, “From its inception in 2001, the Court has delivered 402 judgments on a total of 678 cases filed within the same period.

“The statistics also indicate that since inception, the Court has held 1440 court proceedings, and rendered 29 Decisions on 41 Applications for revision of Judgment filed, while 168 cases including those filed at the beginning of 2024 are presently pending before it.”

The report also said in 2023, the court delivered 59 judgments, five rulings, which was an increase compared to 2021 and 2021 when 41 judgments were delivered.

“64 Decisions comprising 59 Judgments and 5 Rulings were delivered in 2023, a remarkable progress from 41 judgments rendered in 2022 and 2021 consecutively. This is the highest number of Judgments delivered in a year since the Court’s inception in 2001.
The other indices are also encouraging as we succeeded in reducing the number of pending cases to 165 at the end of 2023 compared to 180 at the end of 2022,” the report added.

However, President of the Court, Edward Amoako Asante, enjoined staff to brace up for an anticipated increase in the number of human rights cases that may be filed before the Court following unrest in the sub-region including attempted coups in Member States.

He expressed optimism that the Court will exceptionally deliver on its mandate in 2024 considering the recent additional recruitments and promotions to boost the productivity and performance of the Court.

The Court resumed activities on January 8, 2024, after its end-of-year break, and will commence court sessions on January 29, 2024.