So after almost 2 years of arbitrations, the African Court today delivered it’s ruling on the Woyome case.
The import is as follows.
The Court ruled on three key issues.
1.Allegations of Human rights violations the Court ruled 7 : 4 in favor of the respondent State ( Government of Ghana)
2.On the issues of reparations the Court held that once the Applicant could not satisfy his claim of human rights violations the Judges dismissed the reparations reliefs sought by the applicant 8:3
3.Then admissibility, the Court in its decision held that the case was admissible and the Court had jurisdiction.
Now this ruling means that out of 11 Judges, 7 were convinced that Mr.Woyome’s right to a fair hearing and equal treatment before the law was NOT violated (Judging by Article 2 of the African Court Charter)
4 Judges were however convinced that Mr.Woyome had a case and his rights were violated.
In the end it was a split decision.
The Judge in reading the ruling did not specify the reasons for the decisions by the Court.
She also did not specify which judges voted for or against what.
Now we must all patiently wait for the comprehensive judgement to get a better understanding on this decision by the African Court.
Finally, the bigger question that arise at this point is,
Will Government respect the African Court ruling now?(when the decision is in its favor?)
At this point we can only draw government’s attention to the fact even in execution of Judgements, there are due processes and in respect for the rule of law government must follow the due processes.
We also remind government that at all times during this execution process the rights of Mr.Woyome must be respected in accordance with the Laws of Ghana.
Mensah Thompson
Executive Director ASEPA
Source:broadcastergh.com/Ayisah Foster
