The Economic Community of West African States

Abstract

This chapter examines the international parliamentarization of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). ECOWAS was founded in 1975 without an international parliamentary institution (IPI). An IPI was only created in 1993 in the context of general treaty reform. In particular, the democratization process in the region, the promotion of pan-African community building and the example of other successful regional organizations motivated the initiative for an ECOWAS Parliament. Moreover, the ECOWAS Parliament represents an attempt by elites to strengthen the links between the international organization and the citizens. However, the ECOWAS Parliament took until 2001 to become operational and did not have legislative functions until 2017.