Edward Amoako Asante, the president of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Court of Justice, has urged member nations to look into measures to foster a lasting democratic culture to improve political stability.
If there were no assurances of free, fair, and transparent elections, he claimed, constitutional democracy would remain a phantom.
Without the establishment of participatory democracy, the rule of law, effective administration, and political stability, he claimed, we cannot attain our community's goals.
The request was made by Mr. Asante on May 22 during the opening ceremony of the four-day meeting in the Gambia with the topic "ECOWAS Zero Tolerance for Unconstitutional Change of Government."
On the heels of military interventions in governance through military coups in the previous two years in three ECOWAS Member States Mali, Guinea, and Burkina Faso the conference will examine the rule of law and the underlying elements of political stability.
The various facets of the ECOWAS security architecture and the importance of human rights for democracy, peace, and security, including the duty of Member States to uphold and defend those rights, as well as the function of elections as a catalyst for conflict, will also be covered by the speakers.
The other presentations will look at the role of national and ECOWAS courts in safeguarding constitutional democracy, the rule of law, and human rights; the favourable legal framework for ECOWAS integration; community law in context; and the ECOWAS Court's judgement enforcement system.
constitutional amendment
According to Mr. Asante, the Armed Forces' involvement in government was an anomaly that seriously threatened the rule of law, constitutional order, and participatory democracy.
Additionally, it impedes economic growth, foreign direct investment in these nations' economieswhich are always subjected to additional economic sanctionsand threatens the human rights system.
The international community no longer tolerates military takeovers, and as a result, these governments inevitably become outcasts in the community of nations.
The same unconstitutional transfers of administration have received zero tolerance from ECOWAS, he added.
In order to avoid unlawful changes of government and to punish defaulters, Mr. Asante asked member nations to act jointly. He said that political will was a must for the fulfilment of the goal.
"It is necessary to provide the enabling democratic culture that should guarantee economic growth in order to implement the community's economic agenda," he continued.
He expressed the expectation that the meeting would provide a very helpful result that would help to map a course for the future and stop further unlawful alterations to the structure of our subregion's administration.
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