2023-07-22 17:07:30
Friday July 21. one hundred student clerks (6th promotion) and one hundred court auditors (7th promotion) were sworn in at the Cona-cris Court of Appeal. Recruited by competition, they joined the Judicial Training Center (CFJ) for two years. The first step to take to enter the Guinean judicial system.
The swearing-in ceremony took place in the courtroom of the September 28, 2009 massacre trial. It recorded the presence of several transition ministers, including the Prime Minister, Nanard Goumou. Many judicial officers from all over the village also participated in the ceremony. For the occasion, the Court of Appeal sat for a solemn hearing.
Alhassane Naby Camara, director of the Judicial Training Center, said that this recruitment reflects the authorities’ desire to reform Guinea’s judicial sector. “It aims to fill the chronic deficit of clerks and magistrates in the country and to rejuvenate two bodies that have long remained without training or vision”. Amen! According to him, this oath engages and obliges these new students throughout the training. He warns and invites students not to take the oath lightly. “Any breach of professional conduct and ethics will be subject to sanctions without any qualms. No complacency or favouritism,” he argues.
A binding statute
Well before the start of the ceremony, the Keeper of the Seals, Minister of Justice and Human Rights, Alphonse Charles Wright, chatted with the future magistrates and clerks. For him, admissions to the recruitment competition are not an acquired right. “At the slightest error, the person concerned could be expelled from the CFJ”. According to the minister, training is the only way to prepare for a judicial career. He intends to make them elites of the Guinea-hate magistracy. “The oath you take is sacred. Whoever takes the oath must absolutely submit to the law of confidentiality, to professional secrecy. It is the same contract that binds doctors and patients. You have made the choice to pursue a legal career. Making a choice involves enough responsibility.” To indicate to recruits that taking an oath does not mean that they are already magistrates or clerks. “It simply means that you enter the school as student clerks and auditors of justice. As students, you will be in contact with living files in which you will find confidential information”. Charles Wrong draws attention: “You are now in a real world, far from the fictions of television. It is a world that imposes a number of obligations on you to which you can only submit. You are on an irreversible path from this day on”.
moral lessons
The Prime Minister, the president of the Court of Appeal, the pro-crieur, the dirlo of the CFJ, all gave lessons to the recruits on the attitude which they must adopt from now on. Charles Wrong told them: “We don’t train people for ethno-strategy, nor for regionalist values, we train people who have the merit of exercising a noble profession. It is a great power that you have, especially a great responsibility. But in all circumstances, you must show yourself worthy of your profession. The Keeper of the Seals urges them to abandon any practice that does not rhyme with their profession, to respect the internal regulations of the CFJ, to leave social networks, to withdraw from political and ethnocentric debates, to avoid commenting on current events and to learn to live in a framework of discretion. Charles Wrong: “You got into this lineup, but not all of you will get out of it. Only those who will behave in accordance with their oath will deserve to wear with pride these robes of magistrates and clerks”.
worthy representatives of the Republic
In his speech, the PM, Nanard Goumou, conveyed the congratulations of the President of the CNRD, Colonel Mamadi Doum-bouillant, before indicating: “By taking the oath, you undertake to be the guardians of the values: rights, fairness and truth, to defend them with integrity and honor them with your actions on a daily basis. Your duties will lead you to work hand in hand, with judges, lawyers and others, so that our courts are places where impartiality and transparency reign”. He invites them to serve with honor, integrity and passion. The PM affirms that the role of magistrates and clerks is not only technical, it is human. “You will be in direct contact with people involved in legal proceedings. Your empathy and your ability to listen will be essential to support them and reassure them throughout the process”.
For the PM, the oath taken on honor, respected on daily practices, the values taught at the CFJ, the ethics of this profession, must be reflected in their speech and conduct. This is what would allow them to embody fair justice for all. He claims that his government is more than ever determined to correct the defects and imperfections of the Guinean judicial system.
At the end of the speeches and legal protocols, each of the 200 students took turns swearing to scrupulously maintain professional secrecy and to behave as a worthy and loyal “clerk or auditor of justice”.
Abdoulaye Pellel Bah
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