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The motion was premised on Nigeria’s alleged failure to take measures to make sure the admission of Haiti into the African Union at a 2016 Summit of the AU, in Addis Ababa.
The ECOWAS Court docket on 14 March 2024 dismissed an software introduced by two (2) non-governmental organisations (NGOs) which requested the Court docket to carry the Federal Republic of Nigeria responsible for violating the appropriate to improvement of the Africans within the diaspora significantly individuals of Haiti.
The motion was premised on Nigeria’s alleged failure to take measures to make sure the admission of Haiti into the African Union at a 2016 Summit of the AU, in Addis Ababa, which the Candidates claimed would have enabled Haiti to reap the benefits of developmental initiatives on the continent such because the African Continental Free Commerce Space (AfCFTA).
Justice Dupe Atoki, decide rapporteur who delivered the judgment mentioned the Court docket declined jurisdiction to listen to the matter and dismissed it on the grounds that the alleged violation occurred outdoors the ECOWAS sub-region. Each events had been ordered to bear their price of litigation.
The initiating software with go well with quantity ECW/CCJ/APP/54/22 was filed on 24 November 2022 by two NGOs – The Integrated Trustees of Prince and Princess Charles Offokaja Basis, Nigeria, and Prince and Princess Charles Offokaja Basis, Switzerland. Within the go well with, they claimed that the Nigerian authorities failed to guard the appropriate to improvement of individuals of African descent within the diaspora, significantly these within the Caribbean nation of Haiti, by its failure to formulate and execute a coverage in step with Article 22(2) of the African Constitution that may have supported Haiti’s 2016 request for membership of the African Union (AU).
Mr Charles Offokaja who represented the NGOs mentioned that such membership may have forestalled Haiti’s financial disaster and enhanced the event of Haiti and different Afro-American people and peoples and ensured their full participation within the affairs of the AU together with the African Continental Free Commerce Space (AfCFTA).
He requested the Court docket for a declaration that Nigeria breached Article 22(2) by not formulating and executing a coverage to assist Haiti’s software for membership of the AU. He additionally demanded an order of Court docket compelling Nigeria to formulate and execute such coverage to assist Haiti software for consideration on the subsequent atypical or extraordinary session of the Meeting of the AU.
In response, Mrs Maimuna Lami Shiru, lead counsel representing Nigeria filed a preliminary objection difficult the competence of the Court docket to listen to the matter referring to Afro-People who aren’t residents of the ECOWAS Neighborhood, including that the NGOs’ pleadings weren’t in accordance with Article 9 of the Court docket’s Protocol as amended.
As well as, she argued that the ECOWAS Court docket was not the African Court docket on Human and Peoples’ Rights and due to this fact not empowered to find out circumstances not associated to the ECOWAS sub-region. She additionally mentioned that the subject material had been decided by the African Union Fee and printed in a press launch issued in Could 2016.
Mrs Shiru requested the Court docket to dismiss the go well with for lack of jurisdiction and cheap explanation for motion towards the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
In its evaluation, the Court docket famous that although an allegation of human rights violation was invoked, the alleged violation didn’t happen in any Member State of ECOWAS as required beneath Article 9(4) of the Supplementary Protocol of the Court docket. The Court docket due to this fact dismissed the case for lack of jurisdiction.
Additionally on the panel had been Justices Edward Amoako Asante (presiding) and Sengu Mohamed Koroma (member).
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