Project description

Title: Promoting the rule of law and justice in West Africa
Commissioned by: German Federal Foreign Office (AA)
Country: Côte d’Ivoire, Liberia, Sierra Leone
Lead executing agency: Ministry of Justice
Overall term: 2008 to 2011

Context

Since September 2002, Côte d’Ivoire has experienced a severe political and economic crisis and this has divided the country geographically and politically. The south is held by government troops, while rebel forces (Forces Nouvelles) control the north.

The situation began to improve when the peace treaty of Ouagadougou was signed in March 2007. The reunification of the country, and the accompanying re-establishment of justice in the north, is progressing slowly.

The justice sector in Côte d’Ivoire lacks infrastructure, and has operational and functional deficiencies. The effectiveness, transparency and fairness of civil and criminal trials are all badly affected. Justice personnel need better training, courts are poorly equipped and the population only has limited access to justice. Courts are frequently inaccessible, and free legal aid is not yet offered by the state. This means that the judiciary cannot sufficiently fulfil its task of peacefully resolving legal disputes. The population has very little trust in the formal judicial system.

GIZ channels funds provided by the German Federal Foreign Office (AA) into promotional measures in the areas of:

• training of justice personnel (basic and further training measures);
• access to case law and legal texts for the judiciary;
• support of reform initiatives;
• access to justice.
• Initial measures for reducing corruption to ensure the independence and transparency of justice

Similar measures will be simultaneously implemented in Sierra Leone and Liberia, where the justice system is confronted with similar problems. Although the legal systems in the three countries are different (common law/civil law), there are many areas of common interest, such as criminal law for combating cross-border crime. For this reason, joint seminars take place in Côte d’Ivoire. A lively exchange of experiences between experts from the three countries will thus be initiated, and networks of experts are established for future case-related regional cooperation in the justice sector.

Objective

The ability of the justice system to function in Côte d’Ivoire, and in Liberia and Sierra Leone, is strengthened through measures to train justice personnel, improved access to justice and support for reform initiatives.

Approach

Regional basic and further training seminars are held in Grand Bassam to train justice personnel. At the national level, the Institut National de Formation Juridique is assisted in developing and implementing an education and training programme for justice personnel. The country’s 36 courts are equipped with reference libraries, and when graduates leave the judicial academy they start their professional careers with a basic set of legal texts and reference literature. The Centre National de Documentation Juridique and the Journal Officiel receive support to print and distribute precedence judgements, legal texts and the official gazette.

Reform initiatives, such as the reform of criminal law, are introduced at conferences and round table discussions, and proposals are developed with the Ministry of Justice. A mobile legal clinic is being set up to allow citizens, particularly in remote areas, access to out-of-court legal assistance. Lawyers explain to the citizens there about their rights. At the same time, the legal clinic is a first point of contact with the formal judicial system. The transparency, integrity and accountability of the justice sector will be strengthened by the re-instatement of the department of Inspection Générale des Services Judiciaire in the Ministry of Justice. Together with the Ministry of Justice, first steps will be taken to develop a code of ethics for judges in line with the Bangalore Principles of Judicial Conduct.

Results achieved so far

The Institut National de Formation Judiciaire (INFJ) which unites four academies under one roof (judges, clerks of court, prison officers, and further training for justice personnel) has been fully equipped and is now able to function. Teaching curricula were revised with the assistance of international experts. Senior staff of the judicial academy received advanced specialist training in France at the French National School for the Judiciary (ENM) and are now able to directly pass on what they have learnt.

Many regional and national training seminars were carried out for justice personnel, such as judges, clerks of court and prison officers.

Lawyers who were trained by the bar association rather than the INFJ have also received support to equip their libraries with teaching material and reference literature.

The Centre National de Documentation Juridique (CNDJ) received funding to print and distribute precedence judgements and legal texts, and was provided with all the necessary equipment, including a car. This means that rulings can be collected from remote tribunals, at the same time, legal decisions from the Supreme Court and legal texts can be distributed.

Finance has been provided for the production of two legal commentaries, Grands Arrêts de la Jurisprudence Constitutionnelle Ivoirienne and the Grands Arrêts de la Jurisprudence Administrative Ivoirienne. The documents will be printed in 2010 and these texts will then be distributed to the references libraries of all the courts.

Various conferences and round table discussions have been organised, on themes such as access to justice. The results of these discussions were incorporated into the development of a long-term strategy for sector reform.