By Tabora Bojang
Former Attorney General and Minister of Justice Marie Saine and international human rights lawyer Gaye Sowe have been appointed as registrars at the Ecowas Court of Justice in Nigeria.
They are the first Gambians to be appointed as staff of the regional court.
Mrs Saine takes over as Registrar for Judicial Records, Archives and Publication, while Mr Sowe is appointed Registrar for Appeals, Arbitration and Enforcement.
The two senior lawyers with diverse experiences are expected to significantly advance the activities and programmes of the regional court. They took their oaths of office last Wednesday alongside the court’s new chief registrar Dr Yaouza Ouro-Sama during a ceremony held at the court’s headquarters in Abuja.
Until his appointment, Gaye Sowe was the executive director of the Institute for Human Rights and Development in Africa. He also served as a commissioner of the Constitutional Review Commission.
Sowe holds an LLM from the University of Essex, UK; an LLB from the Obafemi Awolowo University, Nigeria; and a BL (Hons) from the Nigeria Law School.
Marie Saine served as Minister of Justice from 2007 to 2009. Prior to her ministerial appointment Mrs Saine served as a legal adviser to the Office of the President. She was conferred Officer of the National Order of the Republic of The Gambia by the former president Yahya Jammeh in May 2009.
Mrs Saine holds a BL degree from the International Islamic University, Malaysia and an LLM in human rights from the University of Pretoria, South Africa. She served as a senior legal officer at the African Commission before her new Ecowas appointment.
