For 27avril, a University of Lomé symposium spares the Togolese authorities
By the AFREEQUE newsroom, based on 27avril
In an opinion piece published by 27avril, the newspaper criticises the international symposium held on 29 and 30 October 2026 at the University of Lomé on regional human rights courts, which it deems favourable to the authorities and intended to call into question the jurisdiction of the ECOWAS Court of Justice.
For the Togolese outlet 27avril, the international symposium organised on 29 and 30 October 2026 at the University of Lomé on regional human rights courts spared the Togolese authorities. The newspaper notes that the meeting put state sovereignty and the limits of regional judicial review at the centre of its debates, rather than the alleged breaches of democratic principles and citizens' rights in Togo.
27avril stresses that the ruling handed down on 29 January 2026 by the ECOWAS Court of Justice, seized in particular by the Togolese League for Human Rights, was the unavoidable starting point for any reflection on the subject. The community court concluded that the constitutional reform of 25 March 2024 contravened Article 23 of the African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance, and described the situation as an unconstitutional change.
The outlet considers that the university must remain a space of intellectual independence and contradiction, and not a rubber-stamping chamber for the concerns of the political authorities.
The symposium was held one month after the publication of a report on the obstacles to the execution of decisions by regional courts, while ECOWAS asks Togo to execute the constitutional ruling handed down by its Court of Justice.
