By Mark Longyen
Dakar, Senegal, (NAN) Former Chief Registrar of the ECOWAS Court of Justice, Dr Tony Anene-Maidoh, has identified diplomatic engagement with Member States as key to ensuring compliance and enforcement of the court’s judgments.
Anene-Maidoh made this known in a presentation at the 2026 Annual International Conference of the Community Court of Justice, ECOWAS, on Wednesday, in Dakar, Senegal.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the conference is themed: “The Community Court of Justice — ECOWAS at the Crossroads: Justice, Innovation, Protection of Human Rights and the Future of Regional Integration in West Africa.”
“Diplomatic channel or diplomatic engagement is a very important vehicle for compliance or enforcement of judgments of regional courts.
“In the case of ECOWAS, enough emphasis has not been placed on that because ECOWAS court has been left alone like an orphan when it comes to enforcement.
“ECOWAS institutions have been laid back in engaging diplomacy to resolve the compliance problem that we have in the sub-region,” he said.
Anene-Maidoh advocated stronger enforcement mechanisms, greater political commitment and renewed diplomatic engagement to address persistent non-compliance with the court’s judgments in Member States.
He noted that all relevant ECOWAS’ political institutions could play a much greater role in resolving its own compliance problem.
The legal expert said the Authority of ECOWAS Heads of State and Government, as the community’s supreme political institution, could use diplomatic engagement and existing political tools to encourage compliance.
According to him, the ECOWAS Council of Ministers, should also monitor implementation and place greater emphasis on the status of court judgments.
He added that the ECOWAS Parliament should also play an important role in this regard because its members could engage their respective national governments and exercise parliamentary oversight concerning implementation.
Dr Tony Anene-Maidoh, ex-Chief Registrar, ECOWAS Court of Justice, making his presentation at the conference (NAN).
“So, diplomacy is very, very important. We are looking at ECOWAS institutions that ought to play a vital role in diplomatic engagement to resolve this problem of non-compliance.
“When you are talking about international courts, the importance of diplomacy cannot be overemphasised,” he stressed.
The legal luminary recalled the 2002 International Court of Justice judgment in the Cameroon-Nigeria Bakasi boundary dispute, describing it as an example of how sustained international diplomacy helped facilitate implementation.
“You remember the decision in 2002 of the International Court of Justice between Nigeria and Cameroon. Nigeria did not find that judgement funny. But concerted effort was made by the international community.
“In that case, a 2006 agreement brokered by the United Nations, with guarantees from Britain, France, Germany and the United States, provided a diplomatic framework for Nigeria’s implementation of the ICJ decision.
“And in 2006, 12 June 2006, the United Nations brokered the agreement in which Nigeria agreed to implement the decision of the international court of justice. And, that agreement was guaranteed by world powers, Britain, France, Germany, and the United States,” he said.
While arguing that the institutional design of the enforcement mechanism itself required reform, he said the court was left alone to confront the compliance problem, without other ECOWAS institutions making sufficient use of political and diplomatic channels.
”Article 24 of the current framework does not go far enough because the court lacks powers available in some other regional judicial systems to systematically monitor implementation and report directly to the highest political organs of the community,” he noted.
Anene-Maidoh also highlighted the significance of the new requirement for national authorities to submit annual reports on implementation.
He argued that stronger institutional links between those reports, the court and ECOWAS’ political organs would be necessary to make the mechanism more effective.
First from right: ECOWAS Court President, Justice Ricardo Gonçalves, with some justices of the court at the annual international conference in Dakar, Senegal (NAN).
The former registrar emphasised that Member States must respect their treaty obligations and the principle of pacta sunt servanda — the principle that treaties in force are binding, and must be performed in good faith.
He advocated stronger domestic implementing legislation, direct applicability of ECOWAS Court judgments in member states rather than treating them as foreign judgments.
The lawyer also solicited greater involvement of the ECOWAS Council of Ministers and otherinstitutions in diplomatic engagement, and enhanced powers for the court to monitor implementation.
He further proposed greater access for non-state actors to mechanisms for triggering sanctions where appropriate.
Ultimately, he argued, consistent voluntary compliance was essential not only for the authority of the ECOWAS Court but also for the broader project of West African regional integration.
This, he said, was particularly in areas such as trade, where the effectiveness of common regional rules depends on member states accepting and implementing community obligations.
He noted that there was a recurring pattern of prolonged and selective compliance, where judgments remained unenforced for many years, with states complying with certain decisions but not others without a clearly established pattern explaining the choices.
He further that, in practice, ECOWAS Court judgments that have been implemented have often depended more on voluntary compliance than on a robust enforcement process.
Such episodes, he said, illustrated the wider challenge of ensuring that treaty commitments and judicial decisions were respected consistently at both national and regional levels.
“Available records show that, as of March 2026, the court had 162 enforceable decisions, of which only 37 had been complied with, representing an overall compliance rate of about 22 per cent, when ECOWAS institutions were included.
“Excluding ECOWAS institutions, Member States have complied with only 20 of 140 enforceable judgments, giving a compliance rate of approximately 13.5 per cent.
”The figures demonstrate a significant gap between the existence of judicial decisions and their actual implementation,” he added. (NAN)