Exhaustion of domestic remedies of legal protection in the European Court of Human Rights and the Economic Community of West African States Court

Abstract

The article examines the criterion of the exhaustion of domestic remedies of legal protection in the context of the European Court of Human Rights and the Court of the Economic Community of West African States in cases related to the protection of human rights. The article analyzes the norms of the European Convention for the Protection of Rights and Fundamental Freedoms and the norms of the Agreement establishing the Court of the Economic Community of West African States and the Additional Protocol. The question is raised about the need to include a criterion for the exhaustion of local remedies of legal protection in the Court of the Economic Community of West African States in cases related to the protection of human rights. The article also analyzes the position of the Court of the Economic Community of West African States on the issue of the absence of the criterion of exhaustion of domestic remedies of legal protection, examines the jurisprudence. The author concludes that the position of the ECoWAS Court on the acceptability of the exhaustion of the local remedies criterion is positive for the region, while at the same time calls for the court to establish a department staffed with experts to focus on human rights cases.