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PROFILE: ECONOMIC COMMUNITY OF WEST AFRICAN STATES
(ECOWAS)

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[Contact Details] [Member States] [History and Background] [Objectives]
[Structure] [Peace and Security Related Activities]

 

1. CONTACT DETAILS:

 
Secretariat Building
60 Yakubu Gowon Crescent
Asokoro
Abuja
Nigeria
 
Tel: (234) (9) 314 7647/8/9
Fax: (234) (9) 314 3005
E-mail: info@ecowasmail.net
Website: www.ecowas.int
 
 
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2. MEMBER STATES:

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3. HISTORY AND BACKGROUND:

 

The idea for a West African community goes back to President William Tubman of Liberia, who made the call in 1964. A subsequent agreement was signed between Côte d'Ivoire, Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone in February 1965, but this came to nothing. In April 1972, General Gowon of Nigeria and General Eyadema of Togo re-launched the idea, drew up proposals and toured 12 countries, soliciting their plan from July to August 1973. A meeting was then called at Lomé from 10-15 December 1973, which studied a draft treaty. This was further examined at a meeting of experts and jurists in Accra in January 1974 and by a ministerial meeting in Monrovia in January 1975. Finally, 15 West African countries signed the treaty for an Economic Community of West African States (Treaty of Lagos) on 28 May 1975. The protocols launching ECOWAS were signed in Lomé, Togo on 5 November 1976 . In July 1993, a revised ECOWAS Treaty designed to accelerate economic integration and to increase political co-operation, was signed.

 

ECOWAS has been designated one of the five regional pillars of the African Economic Community (AEC). Together with COMESA, ECCAS, IGAD and SADC, ECOWAS signed the Protocol on Relations between the AEC and RECs in February 1998.

 
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4. OBJECTIVES:

 
ECOWAS aims to promote co-operation and integration in economic, social and cultural activity, ultimately leading to the establishment of an economic and monetary union through the total integration of the national economies of member states. It also aims to raise the living standards of its peoples, maintain and enhance economic stability, foster relations among member states and contribute to the progress and development of the African Continent. ECOWAS integration policies and programmes are influenced by the prevailing economic conditions in its member countries, the need to take the principal provisions of the AEC Treaty into account, and relevant developments on the international scene.
 
The revised treaty of 1993, which was to extend economic and political co-operation among member states, designates the achievement of a common market and a single currency as economic objectives, while in the political sphere it provides for a West African parliament, an economic and social council and an ECOWAS court of justice to replace the existing Tribunal and enforce Community decisions. The treaty also formally assigned the Community with the responsibility of preventing and settling regional conflicts.
 
 
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5. STRUCTURE:

 
The Community consists of the Authority of Heads of State and Government, the Council of Ministers, the Mechanism for Conflict Prevention, Management and Resolution, Peace and Security, the Community Tribunal, the ECOWAS Parliament, the Executive Secretariat and six Specialised Technical Commissions. The ECOWAS Treaty also makes provision for an Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), with an advisory role, to be composed of representatives of the “various categories of economic and social activity”. This body has not yet been established.
 
5.1 Authority of Heads of State and Government
 
The Authority of Heads of State and Government of Member States is the supreme institution of the Community and is composed of Heads of State and/or Government of Member States. The Authority is responsible for the general direction and control of the Community and take all measures to ensure its progressive development and the realization of its objectives.
 
The Authority:
The Authority meets at least once a year in ordinary session. An extraordinary session may be convened by the Chairman of the Authority or at the request of a Member State provided that such a request is supported by a simple majority of the Member States.  The office of the Chairman is held every year by a Member State elected by the Authority.
 
5.2 Council of Ministers
 
The Council comprises the Minister in charge of ECOWAS Affairs and any other Minister of each Member State. Council is responsible for the functioning and development of the Community. To this end, unless otherwise provided in the Treaty or a Protocol, Council shall:
The Council meets at least twice a year in ordinary session.  One of such sessions immediately precedes the ordinary session of the Authority.  An extraordinary session may be convened by the Chairman of Council or at the request of a Member State provided that such request is suppor ted by a simple majority of the Member States. The office of Chairman of Council is held by the Minister responsible for ECOWAS Affairs of the Member State elec ted as Chairman of the Authority.
 
5.3 Tribunal
 
The treaty provides for a Community Tribunal, whose composition and competence are determined by the Conference of Heads of State and Government. The Tribunal interprets the provisions of the treaty and settles disputes between member states that are referred to it.
 
5.4 Executive Secretariat
 
The Executive Secretariat is responsible for the smooth functioning of the Community and for the implementation of the decisions of the Authority. The Secretariat's headquarters are based in Abuja, Nigeria. The Executive Secretary is elected for a four-year term. This position is currently held by Dr Mohamed Ibn Chambas. The Executive Secretary has four deputies, responsible for:
5.5 Specialised Commissions
 
The following Technical Commissions are established within the Economic Community of West African States:
The Authority may, whenever it deems appropriate, restructure the existing Commissions or establish new Commissions. Each commission shall comprise representatives of each Member State. Each Commission may, as it deems necessary, set up subsidiary commissions to assist it in carrying out its work.  It shall determine the composition of any such subsidiary commission.
 
5.6 Community Court of Justice
 
In October 1999 , ECOWAS decided to establish a Court of Justice following a two-day meeting of Justice Ministers in Abuja. The court will address complaints from member states and institutions of ECOWAS, as well as issues relating to defaulting nations. The court has a president, chief registrar and seven judges and is a permanent institution. Draft rules of procedure for the Court are being finalised.
 
5.7 ECOWAS Parliament
 
The ECOWAS Parliament convened in May 2002, with 115 MPs representing all the member states except Côte d'Ivoire. Togo, Liberia, Cape Verde, Guinea Conakry, Guinea Bissau, Republic of Benin, the Gambia and Sierra Leone have 5 Parliamentarians each; Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger and Senegal have 6 Parliamentarians each; Côte d'Ivoire is entitled to 7 representatives; Ghana has 8 and Nigeria has 35. Membership is constituted from the membership of the national parliaments of each member state. Should the member lose his or her seat in the national parliament, they would lose their seats in the regional parliament. The ECOWAS Parliament is situated in Abuja, Nigeria and at present only acts in a consultative and advisory capacity. The Speaker of the ECOWAS Parliament, Professor Ali Nouhoum Diallo, has expressed the intention of the Parliament to acquire legislative powers in the future, as well as to institute directly elected representatives.
 
5.8 Mechanism for Conflict Prevention, Management and Resolution, Peace and Security
 
The ECOWAS Summit of December 1999 agreed on a Protocol for the Establishment of a Mechanism for Conflict Prevention, Management and Resolution, Peace and Security. The institutions of the Mechanism include (1) the Authority; (2) the Executive Secretariat; and (3) a Mediation and Security Council of ten member states. The current ten members are the Foreign Ministers of the following states:
The Mediation and Security Council oversees the activities of the following organs:
More detail on each of these organs is elaborated below.
 
 
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6. PEACE AND SECURITY-RELATED ACTIVITIES:

 
Because of distressing events in several of its Member States, ECOWAS soon realised that the case of economic development and progress can only be pursued in an environment of peace and stability. It found that it had to involve itself in conflicts in Member States to ensure that an environment conducive to the implementation of its economic programmes was maintained.
 
Meeting in Lagos on 22 April 1978 , ECOWAS Member States had earlier adop ted a Protocol Relating to Non-Aggression (PNA) which enjoined Member States to “ … refrain from the threat and use of force or aggression” against one another. Article 5(2) of the PNA sta ted that ”Any dispute which cannot be settled peacefully among Member States shall be referred to a Committee of the Authority. In the event of failure of settlement by the … Committee the dispute shall finally go to the Authority [i.e. Heads of State].”
 
A subsequent Protocol Relating to Mutual Assistance on Defence (PMAD) was signed in Freetown, Sierra Leone on 29 May 1981 and became effective five years later. PMAD committed the ECOWAS member states to a collective defence treaty by accepting that armed threat or aggression against one constituted a threat or aggression against the Community and resolved to give mutual aid and assistance for defence. The Protocol provides for a collective response where a member state is a victim of internal armed conflict that is engineered and supported actively from outside, and which is likely to endanger the peace and security of other member states. Both these Protocols have been subsumed as part of the new ECOWAS Mechanism.
 
During the 1990s ECOWAS activities were increasingly dominated by its efforts to secure peace in Liberia, in particular through the involvement of ECOMOG (ECOWAS Cease-Fire Monitoring Group), which was dispatched to Liberia in August 1991. The ECOWAS regional mechanism for conflict resolution provides a framework for regional intervention in political crises in member states with ECOMOG as the adopted regional intervention force.
 
Subsequent security-related agreements include the ECOWAS Conventions on Mutual Assistance in Criminal Matters and on Extradition signed in Dakar on 29 July 1992 and in Abuja on 6 August 1994, the Declaration on the Moratorium on the Importation, Exportation and Manufacture of Light Weapons, adopted by the ECOWAS Heads of State in Abuja on 30-31 October 1998 and the Programme for the Co-ordination of Assistance for Security and Development (PCASED), held in Bamako on 24 March 1999. Meeting in Abuja on 9 July 2001, the Authority extended the moratorium for another 3 years.
 
The ECOWAS Declaration of Political Principles in 1991 set out member states' commitment to uphold human rights, democracy and the rule of law. This was taken further in December 2001, with declarations on Child Rights and Human Trafficking, and most importantly, the Protocol on Democracy and Good Governance, which addresses root causes of conflict, such as corruption and instability. This is a supplementary protocol to the Protocol on the Mechanism for Conflict Prevention, Management and Resolution, Peace and Security, and deals with issues such as free, fair elections, civilian control of the military and unconstitutional changes of government.
 
Plans for the establishment of a regional criminal investigation and intelligence bureau were considered at meetings of the ECOWAS Police Chiefs on 23 September 2002 and the Interior Ministers on 26 September 2002 as part of efforts to combat cross-border criminal activities.
 
6.1 The ECOWAS Mechanism for Conflict Prevention, Management, Resolution and Security
 
In July 1991, while endorsing the ECOWAS Revised Treaty, the Authority adopted a Declaration of Political Principle to Promote Mutual Collaboration in Defence and Security Issues. A subsequent extraordinary ECOWAS summit in December 1997 in Togo endorsed the concept of a Mechanism for Conflict Prevention, Management, Resolution and Security. This was followed by the Yamoussoukro meeting of Ministers of Defence, Interior and Foreign Affairs during March 1998, and a ministerial and experts meeting held in Banjul during July 1998. The Protocol establishing the Mechanism was finally adopted by the ECOWAS Authority at the Abuja summit in August 1999 and sought to institutionalise structures and processes that would ensure consultation and collective management of regional security issues.
 
The Authority of Heads of State and Government is the highest decision-making body of the Mechanism but, without prejudice, has delegated it powers in terms of Article 7 of the Treaty to the Mediation and Security Council – an innovative approach yet to be copied by other sub-regions.
 
The Executive Secretary has the power to initiate fact-finding, mediation, facilitation, negotiations and reconciliation actions in the effective prevention and management of conflicts in the sub-region. In terms of Article 30 of the Protocol, the Executive Secretary is responsible for the training and preparation of composite standby units through regional peacekeeping training centres. The office of the Deputy Executive Secretary for Political Affairs, Defence and Security supervises the Departments of Political Affairs, Humanitarian Affairs, Defence and Security and the Mission Management and Planning Cell.
 

Organogram of the Office of the Deputy Executive Secretary: Political Affairs, Defence and Security (PDF)

 

6.2 Mediation and Security Council:

 

The Mediation and Security Council of the Mechanism was officially launched in Monrovia during May 2000. The meeting, which marked the first ordinary session of the council, followed two special sessions held in Bamako, Mali, and discussed the transfer of power of the different ECOWAS mediation committees to the Council. The Council serves as the equivalent to the UN Security Council at sub-regional level and meets at ambassadorial, ministerial and head of state and government level:

The Council can authorise all forms of intervention, including the decision to deploy political and military missions, inform the UN and the OAU of its decisions, provide and review mandates and terms of reference, and appoint force commanders.

 

6.2.1 Defence and Security Commission:

 

The Defence and Security Commission comprises Chiefs of Defence Staff of ECOWAS. The Commission's role is to examine all technical and administrative issues and assess logistical requirements for peace-keeping operations. The Commission assists the Mediation and Security Council in:

The Defence and Security Commission meets once every quarter and when necessary. It also examines reports from the Observation and Monitoring Centres and makes recommendations to the Mediation and Security Council.

 

6.2.2 Council of Elders:

 

The Council of Elders is appointed by the Executive Secretary to engage in preventive diplomacy in the region. These eminent personalities are chosen “to use their good offices and experience to play the role of mediators, conciliators and facilitators”. The first Council of Elders was inaugurated in July 2001 in Niamey, Niger and count election monitoring in The Gambia, Sierra Leone, Togo as well as Zimbabwe among their achievements. This Council was constituted as a 32-member organ drawn from the ten members of the Mediation and Security Council. At the Dakar Summit in January 2003, the Council of Elders was recomposed as a 15-member body, one from each member state of ECOWAS. On 23 April 2003, a new Council of Elders was inaugurated in Accra, Ghana. At their first meeting the new Council recommended that exploratory or preliminary missions in certain conflict situations be carried by the Elders before the intervention of the Heads of State.

 

The current members are:

6.2.3 Early Warning Observation and Monitoring System:

 

The Observation and Monitoring Centre is the hub of the ECOWAS Early Warning System that has four Observation and Monitoring Zones within the sub-region. It has recently appoin ted a director and a programme manager responsible for early warning analysis. During May 2001 ECOWAS signed a headquarters agreement with Benin to establish an observation zone in Cotonou whose role would be to signal the potential of conflicts in Benin, Nigeria and Togo. This would be the fourth zone. The others are in Banjul (Gambia), Monrovia (Liberia), Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso) and Cotonou (Benin) would be to collect data on potential disputes for transmission to the central ECOWAS observatory in Abuja.

 

6.2.4 ECOMOG:

 

ECOWAS Monitoring Group (ECOMOG) operations started in Liberia to prevent the overthrow of the unpopular government of President Samuel Doe by the National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL) led by Charles Taylor. Doe called on the Community for help. His request would eventually split the Community when the Anglophone countries, led by Nigeria, decided to assist, while the Francophone countries largely opposed the military intervention.

 

The intervention force that landed in Liberia on 24 August 1990 consisted of troops contributed by Nigeria, Ghana, Guinea, Sierra Leone and The Gambia. Successive fighting, looting and killing was temporarily halted by a number of short-lived peace accords until the fourteenth peace accord was signed in Abuja in August 1996. ECOMOG oversaw the subsequent elections on 19 July 1997 that swept Taylor to power in a landslide victory. The Group departed in February 1998, having earned grudging respect for its role in the latter years.

 

The barbarity and cruelty seen in the NPFL operations in Liberia were mirrored in those of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) under Foday Sankoh in neighbouring Sierra Leone from Liberia. RUF operations started in March 199. In 1994 the Sierra Leone and Nigerian governments signed a defence pact and ECOWAS soon extended the mandate of ECOMOG in Liberia to include Sierra Leone, and moved its headquarters from Monrovia to Freetown. A cease-fire between the government and the RUF eventually came into effect on 24 May 1998, followed by negotiations and a peace deal on 7 July 1999. ECOMOG would eventually reinforce its troops to almost 15 000 before the United Nations Assistance Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL), start taking over in accordance with the Lomé Accords.

 

ECOMOG has played a lesser role in Guinea-Bissau where President Vieira called on ECOMOG to intervene and help put down the rebellion in his country in 1998 led by the former Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces, Brigadier Ansumane Mané. The first cease-fire of 26 July 1998 would eventually lead to a peace agreement signed on 1 November in Abuja that called for a 600 man ECOMOG force to police the withdrawal of Guinean and Senegalese soldiers and elections. When President Kumba Yala was ousted by a coup d'etat on 14 September 2003, Guinea-Bissau was threatened with expulsion from ECOWAS in terms of the ECOWAS Protocol on Good Governance and Democracy and the AU Algiers Declaration on Unconstitutional Changes of Government.

 

The ECOWAS Foreign Ministers recommended, on 3 March 1998 in Yamoussoukro, Côte d'Ivoire, that ECOMOG formally become responsible for peacekeeping operations in West Africa and sought to provide a clearer command chain in the light of the often complex relationship between ECOMOG and ECOWAS. The Yamoussoukro decision reflected not only the reality of ECOMOG but served to recognise the dominant role of Nigeria although the decision provided for the broadening of the troop contributions and a rotating Force Commander, as opposed to predominantly Nigerian commanders. Although Nigeria has carried the lion's share of ECOMOG, with a civilian government in power since the end of May 1999, Nigerian President Obasanjo has made it clear that Nigeria could not continue to do so in future.

 

The ECOWAS Defence and Security Commission meeting in Abidjan from 14-18 August 2002 approved a harmonised training programme for ECOMOG stand-by units, in three training schools in the region. The three schools are: the Peacekeeping School in Zambakro, Côte d'Ivoire, the Kofi Annan International Training Centre in Accra, Ghana, and the National War College in Abuja, Nigeria. They would respectively handle tactical, operational and strategic training programmes. It would become compulsory for each member state to have standby units, to be inspected regularly by the Commission. Plans are also underway to set up two military bases for the storage of common user equipment and other items recovered from past operations. These bases would be established in one coastal country and one landlocked country in the region. Proposals for the financing of ECOMOG peacekeeping deployments include the establishment of a Peace Fund similar to that of the African Union.

 

Since September 2002, a military rebellion in Côte d'Ivoire has drawn ECOWAS into peacekeeping duties in that country. A meeting of the Mediation and Security Council of the ECOWAS Mechanism for Conflict Prevention, Management, Resolution and Security met on 26 October and agreed to the deployment of West African troops to monitor a ceasefire signed on 17 October. The ECOWAS Mission in Côte d'Ivoire (ECOMICI) deployed approximately 1 400 troops from Ghana, Togo , Benin, Niger and Senegal under Force Commander, Major-General Abdoulaye Fall. On 28 February 2004, the UN Security Council voted in favour of integrating these West African peacekeepers into a UN Operation in Côte d'Ivoire (UNOCI), from 4 April 2004 for an initial period of 12 months. Some 4000 French troops operating in Côte d'Ivoire are expected to withdraw thereafter.

 

Renewed crisis in Liberia during 2003 led to ECOWAS deploying a second peacekeeping operation in the region, after a Comprehensive Peace Agreement was reached on 18 August 2003. The ECOWAS Mission in Liberia (ECOMIL) began deploying outside Monrovia from 9 September 2003, with 3 563 troops from Nigeria, Mali and Senegal under Force Commander, Brigadier General Festus Okonkwo. The UNSC approved conversion of ECOMIL into a UN International Stabilisation Force from 1 October 2003.

 

This profile was compiled by the Institute for Security Studies. Please send comments and/or corrections to: nico@iss.org.za

 

 
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