Panelists gathered yesterday Friday by the Center for the Quality of Law and Justice (CQDJ), called for effective protection of victims and witnesses involved in anti-terrorism trials , in order to achieve true justice and social cohesion.
The terrorist attacks that have struck Burkina Faso for eight years have left many families in mourning and caused immense damage.
Unfortunately, for fear of reprisals, lack of information and resources, victims generally living far from the anti-terrorist prosecution in Ouagadougou are unable to make their voices heard.
The coffee debate organized on the evening of Friday September 8, 2023 by the Center for the Quality of Law and Justice (CQDJ), on the theme: “Role and place of victims in anti-terrorist trials”, allowed participants to know more about this sad reality.
“As long as we cannot make the protection of victims effective, we will hardly have useful victims in our trials. This means that we are going to hold trials without victims. We may be going to pronounce decisions but we are not going to do justice,” said the Deputy Prosecutor of Faso at the Ouaga II High Court, Idrissa Sako, also a member of the anti-terrorist pole.
According to Idrissa Sako, protection takes into account the physical integrity of the person concerned, the change of residence, the change of identity and everything that goes with it, “to allow the victim to contribute to the work of justice, without having to fear for his person or for people close to him.
For the man of law, he cannot have social cohesion without the involvement of all parties. He cites as proof that victims affected by the remorse of their tormentors even had to ask for forgiveness for them.
In the opinion of the second panelist, Me Olivier Somé, the State is doing its best to protect victims, notably with the creation of the Legal Assistance Fund and the existence of a bill which will regulate witnesses and victims.
Me Somé also highlighted the creation of an anti-terrorist judicial center and the signing of a protocol in 2022 with the United Nations to recognize de facto minors recruited by terrorist groups as victims.
Women and young girls are full-fledged victims of terrorist groups and the adoption by the Burkinabe state of the law on gender-based violence, according to the lawyer, contributes to the fight against terrorism.
Me Oilvier Somé hopes that the Compensation Fund, currently being created, will be able to repair a little of the damage suffered by the victims, promote their psychological care and their resettlement.
From his point of view, in the absence of justice and reparation, victims can become radicalized before taking revenge.
Note that the public was involved from start to finish in this café debate, moderated by the president of the board of directors of the Center for the Quality of Law and Justice (CQDJ), Sidwaya Sosthène Ouédraogo.
According to Mr. Ouédraogo, this exercise aimed to take stock of the participation of victims in the course of anti-terrorist trials.
It was also about identifying the specific challenges they face, including protection, access to information and participation and the damage repair mechanism.
According to Sidwaya Sosthène Ouédraogo, the objective was also to identify perspectives and concrete recommendations to improve the role and place of victims in these trials.
Created in 2013, the CQDJ is an association whose vision is to contribute to the building of a just, more equitable society, in which each individual has the full exercise of their rights.
Source: Burkina Information Agency