- The transfer of the prison establishments and their administration from the
Ministry of the Interior and Local Development to the Ministry of Justice and
Human Rights, under the terms of the law n° 2001-51 of 3rd May 2001, and this,
to strengthen the legal supervision at the point of execution of sentences and to
consolidate the principles of legality and supremacy of the law;
- The improvement of the system applicable to the prisons thanks to the
promulgation of the law n° 2001-52 of 14th May 2001. This law, lays down the
conditions of stay in the prisons, guarantees the rights of the detainees and
helps them to effect their eventual re-integration into public life;
- The institution of the principle of the responsibility of the State in the prejudice
caused by the application of the law and this through the promulgation of the law
n° 2002-94 of 29 October 2002 relative to the compensation of the individuals
who have suffered remand or who have been condemned to a prison sentence
and whose innocence had been established;
- The institution, by virtue of the law n° 2002-93 of 29 October 2002, of the
system of arbitration in criminal matters. This system grants the Public
Prosecutor, in the case of offences and misdemeanors which are not a danger
to society and which do not indicate a tendency to criminality in the perpetrator,
the possibility of carrying out, with the agreement of the parties involved, a
reconciliation which guarantees the rights of the victim and puts an end to the
criminal suit;
- The transfer of the duties of judicial inquiries to Judges who have the
competence and the experience and who belong to the Cassation Court and the
Appeals Court.
625. Furthermore, efforts had been deployed to bring justice closer to the
triables. It is in this context that the new Courts of various tiers of jurisdiction had
been created in accordance with the needs of each region. The number of
specialized Divisions within the Courts, such as the Commercial matters
Division and the Fiscal matters Division had been increased. At the same time,
there had been the institution of the office of Companies Judge, Social Security
Judge and Commercial Register Judge.
626. In this same context, it is important to point out that in August 2004, a
series of new measures had been announced for the improved organization and
modernization of the legal processes, and the paying of more attention to the
material and moral working conditions of the Magistrates. Among these
measures figure, in particular:
- The modernization of the computer system of the Courts in order to allow the
citizen to obtain, from a distance, the various legal certificates which do not
necessarily require his travel to the headquarters of the Court, and for the legal
Counsels and the officers of the Court to receive, in their offices, the data they
need to accomplish their task;
- The creation in the Centre for Judicial and Legal Studies, of a specialized Unit
in Criminology which serves as a modern scientific laboratory responsible
specifically for the study of criminal symptoms of all sorts, of the determination
of their characteristics as well as the indepth research on their causes and
motives;
- The review of the Criminal Procedure Code with the objective of including the
psychiatrist’s report in the file of every habitually offending criminal and which
will be taken into account during the court proceedings against the individual
concerned;
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