Falana writes ECOWAS court, calls for online filing

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Femi Falana (SAN)

Nigerian human rights campaigner, Mr. Femi Falana (SAN), has advised the ECOWAS Court of Justice located in  Abuja to facilitate online filing processes.

He requested in a letter he wrote to the President of the Court, Justice Edward Amoako Asante, titled, “Request to promote and facilitate online filing processes for the Community Court of Justice”.

Falana urged the court workers to make use of online apps like Skype or Zoom to attend to urgent matters, especially at this time of COVID-19 pandemic.

“This is also entirely consistent with the practices of other regional human rights’ bodies, including the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights and the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights.

“Similarly, the United Nations special mechanisms are allowing victims and their representatives to file communications online,” he said.

“The filing of processes should be done electronically and sensitive information such as financial information can be removed to address any privacy or security concerns that may arise.

“However, it should be noted that court processes and documents are already public records available in hard copies to anybody who appears as a clerk of court’s office.

“Public electronic access to court files should be permitted to the same extent that they are available at the court registry,” he said.

Falana advised the court to create electronic records by scanning documents, or simply upload documents that the court already had in electronic format.

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