A Tribute to Robert Bonou, Honorary President of the NCJO of Benin

A Great Figure of Our Profession

This demonstration was both marked with a national and international nature since it was sponsored by the Minister of Justice, of Legal Affairs and of Human Rights, Gustave Anani Kassa, and by Jacques Isnard, president of the UIHJ. The media had strongly relayed the event which appeared in the news programs on national televisions.
 

Among the personalities which had made a point of honouring with their presence the official ceremony we could note Mr. Saturnin Affaton, Director of the Civil and Criminal Affairs, and Mr. Guy Ogoubigi, President of the Court of Appeal, Mrs Séverine Lawson, Former Attorney General and Agent of the Treasury, Honoré Aggrey, permanent secretary of the UIHJ for Central and Western Africa, and Claudine Mougni, secretary of the Board of management of the UFOHJA.

The National Chamber joined together around its President, Hortense Bankolé de Souza, and Georges Almeida, secretary, Monique Kotchoffa, treasurer, as well as the whole of the judicial officers of the country.

Robert Bonou is a great figure of our profession. A judicial officer since November 1969, he took part in the drafting of the fundamental texts governing the profession in Benin. He is also at the origin of the publication of the Law of June 19, 1971 bearing statute of the judicial officers of Dahomey (former Benin).

Appointed President of the National Chamber of judicial officers of Benin in 1996, he fulfilled his functions until 2007. Robert Bonou became an honorary judicial officer by decree of May 18, 2006. In the international field, one remembers that President Bonou was one of the “Companions of the Call of Dakar” of April 1996 and that he chaired the elections of the UIHJ international congress of Tunis in 2003.

A Promoter of the Statute of the Liberal Judicial Officer

Within the UIHJ, President Bonou is well respected for his sense of analysis and for his standpoints which always go in the right direction.

A remarkable speaker, he did not cease to promote the development of the liberal statute, the rise in the legal and professional capacities of the judicial officer and the compliance with the Rule of Law.

These aspects of his personality were emphasized by each of the successive short speeches of Gustave Anani Kassa, Jacques Isnard and Hortense Bankolé de Souza.

Other speakers and friends were to still intervene to point out various more intimate features of Mr Bonou as they were related to old and friendly memories.

At the end of the interventions, President Bonou was to receive from the minister of justice the badges conferring him in his dignity as well as the diploma of honour and the medal of the UIHJ, delivered by President Isnard.

The remarks of tolerance and universal friendship expressed by President Bonou in his return speech were to resound, among the assistance, like an ode to brotherhood between men.

Ultimately, here is a rare event punctuated by a brilliant demonstration marked with a great generosity and human depth.