The Ministry of Justice and Human Rights, responsible for relations with institutions, discussed on June 13 and 14, 2024 in Koudougou, with the Presidents of special delegations (PDS), on the mechanism of legal assistance and the potential contributions of communities to the sustainability of the system in Burkina Faso.
Thirty-five Presidents of Special Delegations (PDS) took part in this exchange meeting on the Legal Assistance Fund (FAJ), on June 13 and 14, 2024 in the City of the Red Rider. Among other things, they were made aware of the mechanism of legal aid, strengthened their knowledge of the judicial organization and collected suggestions for improving the provision of this assistance in the country of “Men of Integrity”. It emerged during this workshop that since the operationalization of the FAJ in 2016, more than 4,000 people have been able to bring their cases before the courts, or benefit from the assistance of professionals, for the execution of court decisions rendered to them. profit. The rep
resentative of the Minister in charge of Justice, Bépoadi Sinini, detailed that from 64 in 2016, the number of beneficiaries increased to 562 in 2021, 789 in 2022 and 1,233 in 2023. Unfortunately, Mr. Sinini indicated that After eight years of existence , the mechanism still remains little known to the general public and even to the new heads of local authorities. Hence the holding of this meeting for the benefit of the PDS, for its popularization. ‘The FAJ considered it important to continue the implementation of its mission of popularizing the legal aid mechanism and to advocate to communities, to strengthen the operational capacities of the structure,’ he confided.
Eliminate psychological barriers
For Bépoadi Sinini, access to justice has three dimensions: geographical, psychological and financial. He indicated that for the effective implementation of the first two dimensions, the Burkinabè State has made efforts to reduce the average radius of access to a jurisdiction, through the creation of new jurisd
ictions across the entire national territory. and undertaken awareness-raising and information actions for populations in order to eliminate psychological barriers. As for the financial dimension which often generates unbearable costs for many people, the representative of the Minister stressed that the State has set up a legal assistance mechanism, managed by the FAJ, whose mission is to contribute to the care of any person who finds it impossible, due to their vulnerability or insufficient resources, to exercise their rights in court.
‘Legal assistance is therefore a mechanism to which the State provides assistance to facilitate access to justice for vulnerable, deprived people or whose resources are insufficient and consists of covering all legal costs that will be incurred. cause legal proceedings initiated by a beneficiary of assistance,’ he explained.
The President of the special delegation (PDS) of Koudougou, Jonas Mané, welcomed this initiative of the ministry, to bring justice closer to the populat
ions of cities and countryside, through the construction of courts and especially the support of the Legal Assistance Fund in their procedures.
‘There are litigants who, due to lack of financial means, are unable to access justice, nor obtain justice, nor the execution of court decisions rendered for their benefit. With the FAJ, the populations will now be enlightened and will have access to justice without financial resources,’ he rejoiced.
Source: Burkina Information Agency