Rédaction Africa Links 24 with AZ Africa Links 24
Published on 2024-04-12 19:52:06
Burkina: Presentation of a project aimed at facilitating access to justice for inmates in seven prisons
Ouagadougou, April 12, 2024 (Africa Links 24) – The Center for Quality Law and Justice (CQLJ) has been implementing the “Access to Justice for Detained Persons” project since February 2024, with the aim of facilitating access to justice for inmates in seven prisons in Burkina Faso, learned Africa Links 24 on Friday.
“The ‘Access to Justice for Detained Persons’ project aims to facilitate access to justice for detainees in seven correctional facilities in Burkina Faso, namely Banfora, Fada N’Gourma, Ouahigouya, Ouagadougou, Koudougou, Bobo Dioulasso, and Kaya,” explained project leader Abel Kafando on Friday during a workshop in Ouagadougou.
According to Mr. Kafando, this 23-month project, which began in February 2024, comes at a time of overcrowding in correctional facilities with an occupancy rate of 160.1%, which amounts to 8,369 detainees for a total capacity of 5,228 people.
“The most concerning occupancy rates are observed in the correctional facilities of Koudougou, Banfora, Ouagadougou, Fada N’Gourma, Kaya, Dédougou, and Bobo-Dioulasso, which together house a total of 4,335 detainees, representing 51.7% of the prison population,” stated Mr. Kafando.
He emphasized that this overcrowding does not provide ideal conditions for protecting detainees.
Project leader Abel Kafando highlighted that initially, the CQLJ will directly assist detainees by providing them with legal and judicial assistance through legal clinics run by trained penitentiary jurists.
“Secondly, the intervention with judicial actors will involve working with them to diagnose difficulties so that the challenges common to all can be addressed,” added Mr. Kafando.
Representative of the Minister in charge of Justice, Geoffroy Yogo, continued that in addition to overcrowding, detainees face precarious detention conditions combined with a lack of knowledge of their fundamental rights, constituting obstacles to the effective protection of these rights.
According to Mr. Yogo, involving judicial and penitentiary actors in discussions and exchanges will help identify bottlenecks in the legal and judicial support for detainees and develop solutions.
He further stated that these solutions will not only benefit detainees but also enhance the quality of services provided by actors in the criminal and penitentiary chain.
In his project presentation, Mr. Kafando added that the project will also include organizing a workshop focusing on promoting alternative measures to detention.
“These alternative measures are a major aspect of the criminal policy desired by the Head of State, Captain Ibrahim Traoré,” mentioned Mr. Yogo.
He also referred to an interview from February 2, 2023, where Captain Ibrahim Traoré expressed his desire for sentences of non-dangerous criminals in prisons to be converted to community service, except for dangerous criminals.
According to the Minister’s representative, this initiative aligns with strategic axes 1 and 2 of the sector policy “Justice and Human Rights.”
“The policy aims, by 2027, to make access to justice as a fundamental right recognized by national and international legal instruments a reality for all litigants,” he mentioned.
The President of the Board of Directors, Sosthène Sidwaya Ouédraogo, recalled that the CQLJ’s mission is to make law an instrument of social change and has been working in the prison environment since 2015.
Burkina Information Agency
AMZ/NK/ata
Read the original article(French) on Agence d’Information du Burkina
