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Roundup: African prosecutors mull judicial cooperation to fight impunity

Xinhua, April 21, 2016 Adjust font size:

African prosecutors have ended a two-day meeting in Nairobi by resolving to adopt an effective and practical approach to regional judicial cooperation in the fight against impunity.

A statement released in Nairobi on Thursday said the prosecutors from the Great Lakes region who attended the April 19-20 meeting hosted by the Kenyan government also identified opportunities to take specific measures to strengthen judicial cooperation.

The conference on strengthening judicial cooperation in the Great Lakes Region was organized by the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR) jointly with the Office of the UN Special Envoy for the Great Lakes region.

The UN Special Envoy for the Great Lakes, Said Djinnit, highlighted the critical importance of judicial cooperation among neighboring states of the region in the fight against impunity.

"We are all acutely aware that ongoing cycles of violence in different countries of the region have resulted in massive human rights abuses, wide-sexual violence, atrocities and death, degradation of the environment and illegal exploitation of natural resources," said Djinnit.

"So many of these crimes have a regional dimension and bear significant consequences for peace and security in the region," the envoy added.

The two-day meeting aimed to develop a better understanding of the challenges and obstacles to judicial cooperation in the Great Lakes region.

Participants at the meeting adopted an operational and practical approach to judicial cooperation that includes implementing domestic legislation of the provisions of the ICGLR Protocol on Judicial Cooperation.

The meeting brought together high-level experts from the police, military and prosecution services of Burundi, Central African Republic, the DRC, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, Sudan, Uganda and Zambia, as well as officials from the UN, the Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunals and other regional and sub-regional organizations.

The conference is a follow-up to the Great Lakes' ministers of Justice meeting in Zambia in August 2015, where the ministers committed to speeding up the domestication of the ICGLR Protocols, including the Protocol on Judicial Cooperation, particularly in the area of arresting fugitives or accused persons, and combating transnational crimes, including terrorism in the Great Lakes.

"While there are regional guidelines for judicial cooperation in the ICGLR Protocols, and a number of countries have extradition treaties between them, there has been little action to effectively foster regional judicial cooperation," the statement said.

"Therefore, the conference aimed to foster greater understanding of the challenges, and make useful recommendations to achieve regional judicial cooperation," it said. Endit