433. As part of the decongestion of overcrowded prison facilities, apart from the building of two (2) new prisons, thirty (30) ministerial orders have been issued for the transfer of 457 detainees from one prison to the other in the year 2018. Furthermore, during public holidays, the President of the Republic signs decrees for total or partial remission of sentences with hundreds and sometimes thousands receiving such presidential pardons. 434. The Ministry of Justice with the support lawyers posted to the prisons under the United Nations Volunteers (UNV) programme, also encourages convicted detainees who have met the legal conditions to submit their applications for release on parole. The Minister of Justice, through circulars, calls on judges to administer alternative forms of sentences to imprisonment such as suspended sentence with probation, general interest work established by Law No. 2017-05 of 31 March 2017, the implementing decree of which was submitted to Cabinet on 18 October 2019. VIII. ACCESS TO THE PUBLIC JUSTICE SYSTEM AND RIGHT TO A FAIR TRIAL Ensure the operationalization of the National Legal and Judicial Assistance Agency (ANAJJ) 435. Access to justice is a fundamental right established by the various national and international legal instruments. Thus, the National Legal and Judicial Assistance Agency (ANAJJ) established by Law No. 2011-42 has been instituted to fulfill that mandate. Its mission is to make available Legal Aid and Judicial Assistance to certain categories of persons. Indeed, for the Agency, legal assistance consists of organizing a whole range of services to improve the understanding of the law, justice system and its institutions and to prevent conflicts and facilitate the settlement of disputes. The legal assistance services are free and meant for all manner of persons without distinction as to nationality, sex, age or any other consideration and the same is applicable outside any judicial or administrative procedure. These services are provided in local legal and judicial assistance offices or during mobile court hearings in the following forms: sensitization of persons or groups of persons on the law in general and justice, legal consultations, counselling, approaches or orientation of persons in respect of bodies or institutions in charge of the implementation of their rights, provision of assistance to citizens for the drafting of legal deeds that do not fall exclusively within the jurisdiction of other legal entities or natural persons. 436. Regarding legal assistance, it takes into account not only the literacy and poverty of the population, but also other bottlenecks such as the distance of the courts, the concentration of lawyers in the country’s capital city, the high costs and fees charged by lawyers or associated with judicial proceedings. It consists of ensuring that during the legal proceedings, the following services are provided to the beneficiary: the assistance to and defence by an officially-appointed lawyer; the bearing of related legal costs involved in the proceedings. The beneficiaries of the judicial assistance are vulnerable and deprived persons. 437. The following vulnerable persons automatically enjoy the legal assistance package: minors prosecuted for crime, offence or contravention; minors who are victims at criminal courts; physicallychallenged persons or civil parties incapable of defending themselves for reasons attributable to their disability; accused persons appearing before an assize court; women victims of violence referred to in Chapters II, III, VI, VIII of Heading III of the Criminal Code; women who solicit payment of alimony, the liquidation of an estate or child custody. Thus, judicial assistance involved 22 153 persons from 2015 to 2018. Legal assistance services accounted for 3371 persons over the same period. 438. In order to ensure the operationalization of the Agency, a diagnostic mission at the local legal assistance offices was carried out in March 2019 and an activity programming workshop with the technical and financial support of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) was organized 89