September 2014

IBJ Zimbabwe Fellows, Innocent Maja and John Burombo, hosted a roundtable discussion on 12^th September 2014 to address the issue of corruption in the criminal justice system. The roundtable was paticularly focused on how lawyers have contributed to its growth and what can be done to reduce this scourge in the system. The legal practitioners and members of the Law Society of Zimbabwe who participated in this open discussion agreed that corruption had become rife in the criminal justice system and that lawyers had somewhat contributed to this by turning a blind eye to its occurrence and seemingly accepting it as normal.

The participants agreed that the main causes of the rise of corruption in the system included: poor remuneration for legal practitioners and other key justice stakeholders, general decline in morals and ethics, a culture of greed and self-enrichment, poverty, and abuse of power by state officials. They then identified the damage done by this system of corruption as including loss of public confidence in the system, loss of the public confidence in lawyers, justice being compromised, lawyers becoming incompetent and lazy, and the legal process becoming expensive due to payment of bribes.

The participants agreed that the problem of corruption within the system was bigger than individual lawyers. Thus, the recommendation was made that lawyers act as a single body to challenge the problem using the Law Society and other organizations like International Bridges to Justice. They also made other recommendations to deal with the problem, which included compulsory continuous legal education for lawyers, the Law Society taking a decisive stance against members engaging in corruption, improvement of remuneration, particularly for junior lawyers, and running awareness campaigns against corruption.

The participants expressed gratitude towards IBJ for hosting the discussion; with one participant commenting that the event had dealt with “more issues that expected” and another saying it was “an enlightening event”.

From July 5th to July 9th, Burundian lawyers will be brought together to brainstorm solutions to the crucial issues of rights at arrest and interrogation, pre-trial detention and access to legal counsel. Burundian lawyers’ trial skills will be enhanced through role plays, visual representations and group discussions. For the very first time, Burundian lawyers will get exposed to the adversarial process, in particular to cross-examination, which is particularly relevant in light of the recent integration of Burundi into the predominantly English-speaking East African Community. International trainer and US Public Defender Stephanie Slattery will urge lawyers to reflect upon her experience to gain the necessary boldness to carry the reform of their system. The training will integrate potential future instructors and equip them with the legal teaching skills they need to replicate small legal defense trainings to their peers.

On July 8th, a series of justice community roundtable discussions on the rights of the accused will be conducted to captivate the attention and imagination of lawyers, judges, prosecutors, police officers and prison officials in conceiving and implementing an efficient and equitable judicial future.

Finally, July 9th will see lawyers try their hand as prosecutors, police officers as lawyers, magistrates as accused persons, and prison directors as judges during mock-trial exercises. The hope is to make them become aware of the constraints each actor of the system face and make them realize how critical it is to join forces if they are to improve the administration of justice in their country.

As the country slowly advances towards democratic stability, it is crucial to integrate all the actors of the system to consolidate the progress made the past few years in promoting a fair and effective justice system in Burundi.

Above: Celebrating  the Victims of Torture on June 26 (Photo by Nathalie Mohadjer)

Above: Young Burundian males working in the streets of Bujumbura often are a target of legal abuses as they are not aware of their rights at arrest.  (Photo by Nathalie Mohadjer)

Professionals with experience in all spheres (6 lawyers, 4 judiciary police officers, 4 prison officials, 2 magistrates and 2 prosecutors) will meet on the 30th at the Terra Nova conference centre in Bubanza Province to examine the nature of the problem, consider strategies to tackle it and make personal commitments to ensure a reduction of the number of pre-trial detainees in Bubanza Province and beyond.

Pre-trial detention is a serious issue in Burundi; a shortage of lawyers in the country (there are only about 100 for a total population of 9 million) and a general lack of respect for the principle of reasonable delay–often because of a deficiency in court resources–mean that Burundi’s prisons are extremely overcrowded. To get an idea of the scale, the national prison system has an occupancy level of 225%; 65% of detainees nationally are on remand and in some prisons, as in Mpimba in Bujumbura, this rises to 80%.

Above: Lawyer Janvier Ncamatwi playing the Prosecutor during the first mock-trial of IBJ’s criminal defense training in Burundi in June 2009. (Photo by Nathalie Mohadjer)

This IBJ-hosted roundtable discussion will be moderated by Janvier NCAMATWI, a lawyer and formerly a judge at military court. Janvier, who has participated in IBJ last defender training in June 2009, will be, in addition to encouraging participants to share their ideas and experiences, presenting his own innovative solution on how to address the issue.

This focuses on bringing courts for detainees on remand to prisons to avoid delays, as the difficulties simply in transporting prisoners to other locations is a real barrier to expedite trials.
The roundtable will be accompanied by a poster campaign focused on informing the Bubanza population of their legal rights.

Some of the participants who were at the roundtable are active in NGOs dedicated to protecting children’s rights. One of these, Jean-Claude Nzeyimana, noted that the justice system does not properly take into account the background of young criminals. Many of them live on the street in tough conditions and, without anyone to rely on, are confronted with violence on a daily basis. These children should thus be seen primarily as victims rather than being cast as criminals. A real attempt to reduce poverty could therefore drastically improve the situation, as could a collective national effort to improve educational opportunities. Unfortunately there is clear tendency in the Burundi judicial system to favour disciplinary action over education, despite that latter proving to be more efficient in reducing juvenile criminality. Pierre Claver, president of APRODH, shared an example to illustrate this, a shocking story which took place a few weeks before the roundtable. A 12-year old pupil caught cheating during a test was, rather than learning form his mistakes at school, sent to a police cell for a couple of days as punishment.

Above: IBJ Burundi Fellow Astère Muyango introducing the debate to Magistrates, Police Officers and Prison Officials and seeking their reaction (Photo by Sanjeewa Liyanage).

The systematic imprisonment of juveniles also lies in the shortage of alternative sanctions. It is widely felt that the purpose of prison is to punish the culprit, as well as to protect him or from retributive community justice. These factors help to explain why officials of the judicial system do not even think to consult NGOs before sending children to jail. However, a few alternative measures do exist. APRODH, for instance, has provided shelter and rehabilitation programs to young boys who face prison due to violent behavior They only have a limited number of places at their disposal, but other NGOs such as FVS are increasingly moving in the same direction.

The discussion then moved to the need for additional legal tools. Olivier Niyonzigiye, a former Justice Maker now working for RCN Justice and Democracy, oriented the debate by stating that the new penal code provided Burundi with everything needed to improve juvenile criminal Justice. The only thing left, he argued, was to put pressure on the state in order to ensure that it gives the judicial system the means to work properly. This effort would need to be directed towards the entire system, granting priority in access to lawyers to children but also implementing measures which would help all detainees–addressing, for instance, prison overpopulation and pre-trial detentions. In a state confronting numerous challenges, the main problem is convincing political leaders that a functional justice system is a priority for the country in order to fully recover from years of conflict.

This is only a short summary of two very rewarding debates. I would like to end by highlighting two points in the discussion which really struck me. The first was when Jean-Claude Nzeyimana noted that the most effective way of preventing juvenile delinquency was parental control. This idea underlines that Justice is above all a collective good, which does not rely solely on the shoulders of magistrates, police officers or lawyers. Finally, Astère reminded us of one of Karen‘s favorite stories, that of the girl and the starfish. A little girl was trying to return to the sea every stranded starfish she found on the shore. A man approached and told her that her task was hopeless, and that she‘d never be able to save them all. The girl replied: “maybe I won’t, but it will mean something for each one of them I do save”. So don’t lose hope and let’s work to save some little Burundian starfish!

Above: IBJ Burundi Fellow leading the discussing over the “circular chart”, a tool used during roundtable discussions to get participants to make concrete commitments. (Photo by Sanjeewa Liyanage)