DAKAR, July 10 (APS) – The holding of meetings dedicated to the reform and modernization of justice was undoubtedly one of the first implementations of Bassirou Diomie Faye’s electoral promises, less than a hundred days after he reached the highest office.
On Thursday July 4, 2024, Professor Babacar Gueye, facilitator of the work of the Conference on the Reform and Modernization of Justice, officially handed over to the Head of State a report summarizing the fruits of the reflections launched between May 28 and June 4 at the Abdou de Diamniadio International Conference Center (CICAD).
It includes an 87-page document listing recommendations from over 400 participants in the dialogue aimed at making the judicial system more efficient.
The reform proposals summarised in this document, of which the APS has received a copy, concern, among other things, the reform of the texts governing criminal justice, commercial justice and administrative justice.
Participants particularly stressed the need for reform of rules relating to the police custody system, speeding up decisions and decentralisation of processes.
Other reform proposals focused on the composition and characteristics of the Superior Council of the Judiciary, greater openness to liberal professions, bringing places of detention up to standard, and the “Africanization” of symbols of justice.
The findings from this national consultation will not be filed, the new head of state was assured during the ceremony receiving the report.
There is no doubt that Bassirou Diomie Faye is keen to ensure that justice, as it was portrayed, is not a weapon that enables power to quash all attempts to resist it.
The President and Prime Minister of the Republic, Ousmane Sonko, and several members of his political party PASTEF, were released from prison following an amnesty law declared on 24 March, ten days before the presidential election.
Leaders and activists of the Senegalese African Patriots for Morality and Brotherhood have always maintained that his time in prison was a consequence of his commitment and his political ambitions.
At the same time, it is undoubtedly possible to believe in promises of changes in the functioning of the judicial system through proposals emerging from meetings dedicated to the field.
Bassirou Diomie Faye promised at the beginning of his mandate to make the reduction of prices of consumer goods as well as the reform of justice and the overhaul of institutions as priorities.
“Our judicial system needs radical changes; only an inclusive approach will make this possible,” he declared at the inauguration of these meetings, held between May 28 and June 4.
He did not fail to stress the fact that the work “should not take the form of an investigative trial to designate one or more culprits to be thrown into the dustbin”.
President Faye said, “The aim of this exercise is to help us pave the way for practical reform in our judicial system so that it inspires greater confidence in litigants and maintains its dignity.”
Thus magistrates, lawyers, bailiffs, clerks and other justice officials, university professors, and the country’s citizens and expatriates were able to meet for a week to identify possible solutions to justice problems.
FD/AKS/OID