African Bar Association honours ECOWAS Court President, former President Kufuor for outstanding leadership

The President of the ECOWAS Court of Justice, Justice Edward Amoako Asante, and Ghana's former President John Agyekum Kufuor were on Monday decorated with the African Bar Association (AFBA) Medal of Merit in Leadership. 

Given during the opening ceremony of the 2022 annual conference of the AFBA which opened on Monday, 8th August 2022 in Lilongwe, Malawi, the award recognizes good governance. 

Several other eminent persons who also received the award include the President of the Cairo-based AFREXIM Bank, Professor Benedict Oramah, and former President Pedro Pires of Cape Verde. 

Also honored were Liberia’s Vice President, Dr Jewel Howard Taylor, who was the keynote speaker at the conference as well as Dr Christopher Edordu, the pioneer President of AFREXIM Bank and Nigeria’s former Minister of Women Affairs.

In a message ahead of the award, the Court characterized the award as a recognition of the exemplary leadership provided by President Asante that has strengthened the image of the court as an exemplar among Africa’s regional courts.

“Coming a few months after the Court received the Global Freedom of Expression award of the Colombia University in the United States, this award strengthens the image the Court under the President’s able leadership as an international court that inspires public confidence and trust,’’ the statement added.

A justice of the Court of Appeal of Ghana, Justice Asante was twice in 2018 and 2020 elected by his four other colleagues as President of the Court following their swearing-in by the then Chairman of the Authority of Heads of State and Government of ECOWAS in 2018.

He and two others have been retained at the Court after the expiry of their initial four-year tenure in July 2022 following a recent decision of the Authority of Heads of State and Government of the Community.

Justice Asante is a member of the Ghana Bar Association, the Association of Magistrates and Judges of Ghana, the Commonwealth Magistrates and Judges Association, and the World Jurists Association.

"Under his leadership, the ECOWAS Court successfully organized three international conferences on various aspects of the Court’s jurisprudence drawing from the expertise of leading jurists, lawyers, professionals,s and scholars within the region to enrich the work of the Court.

In order to avert the devastating effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on the Court, the President drafted and implemented the 2020 Practice Direction on Electronic Case Management which enabled the Court to undertake virtual hearings. Since then, the Court has heard and delivered judgments in many cases through the use of virtual technology without parties and lawyers traveling to the seat of the Court with the attendant savings in costs aside the risk of infection," the Court said on its website.

The ECOWAS Court of Justice was also in March 2022 awarded the ‘Global Freedom of Expression” prize in the best-recognized decision category for its decision in a case by Amnesty International and six others against the Republic of Togo.

The Court has also delivered many landmark decisions that have attracted international accolades.