A delegation of the ECOWAS Court, led by Justice Jérôme Traoré, its president, arrived Arusha on Sunday, February 25, 2018 on a four-day working visit to the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights to discuss and agree on areas of collaboration that would enhance their contribution to improving respect for human rights in Africa.

“We want to discuss ways of building synergy in improving the effectiveness of both Courts so that through the discharge of their mandates, they can improve respect for human rights instruments which our Member States are signatories,” Traoré said ahead of the visit.

He said that both courts were confronted with similar challenges, including the enforcement of their decisions and would “need to work together in resolving these challenges in order to strengthen respect for human rights reduce arbitrariness and contribute to the strengthening of our democracy.”

“Enforcement remains a major challenge and we will need to continue to engage strategically with other stakeholders to improve the level of compliance as this contributes to citizen confidence in the Courts as recourse for mitigating their human rights violations,” he added.

Officials of both courts would during the visit make presentations on the jurisdiction of the courts, those of other international courts of similar jurisdictions, and the mechanisms for the execution of their decisions.

Both courts were also expected to sign a memorandum of understanding delineating areas of cooperation.

In addition to the judges of the court, the ECOWAS Court delegation also included directors of the court.

– Feb.  26, 2018 @ 14:35 GMT |