High-ranking magistrates of the jurisdictions of French-speaking Africa
It is in The Hague, at the head office of the Hague Conference on Private International Law, that a legal seminar for French-speaking Africa was held.
The seminar was placed under the aegis of The Hague Forum for Judicial Expertise, of the Institut français des Pays-Bas and of the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie (OIF). During five days, it brought together the elite of the Judges of the French speaking countries.
For this purpose, twenty among the highest-ranking Chief Justice and judges of the high jurisdictions (Courts of Cassation, Supreme Courts) of French speaking Africa (Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Congo, Ivory Coast, Egypt, Gabon, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Madagascar, Mali, Morocco, Mauritius, Mauritania, Niger, Rwanda, Senegal, Chad, Togo, Tunisia), but also from Belgium, Canada and France, convened in the temple of the private international law to discuss “the benefits of implementing the Hague Conventions on International Child Protection and International Judicial and Administrative Co-operation on the one hand, and, on the other, of promoting the work of the Hague Conference on Private International Law”.
Admirably organized by the bureau of The Hague Conference centered on the Secretary-General, Mr. Hans van Loon, and animated by the First Secretary, Christophe Bernasconi, the seminar proved to be very enriching, in particular with the remarkable contributions of the various speakers.
The vast program, spread out over five days, included the examination of nine conventions within several workshops, centered on two axial topics: the international child protection and administrative and legal international co-operation.
Among the nine studied conventions, only one relating to the international covering of alimonies towards children and other members of the family was at the level of a project.
Presentation of the benefits of the Convention of November 15, 1965 by the UIHJ
The UIHJ, represented by Jacques Isnard and Leo Netten, had been invited to present the convention of November 15, 1965 on the service abroad of judicial and extra-judicial documents in civil and commercial matters.
The purpose was to describe, on the practical level, the innumerable advantages which the adoption of the 1965 convention would confer to the States.
The benefits are known, in particular when the text offers the possibility to transmit directly and easily the documents between judicial officers, civil servants or other qualified professionals, without using the principal mode known as the “entities” (art 10 b. of the convention), i.e. by eliminating the tiresome exchanges between ministries, embassies, police force services, etc.
The statistics held by the UIHJ eloquently show in terms of times of transmission, of certainty of handing-over, and effectiveness, the superiority of the personal service of documents on all the other modes in force.
Consequently, one wonders why in Africa, and particularly among the States of this continent, the authorities feel reluctant to adhere to this convention. In fact, the explanations are non-existent! Everyone one agrees to recognize the advantages of this instrument and admits it is not contradictory to any principle, being political, cultural or religious.
Then, once again, why?
The round table organized with the expertise of Mr. Saâd Moummi (Morocco), Mrs Jaouida Guiga (Tunisia), Mr. Aboudou (Benign), to whom finally were to join many interlocutors, was not to clearly bring a definite answer.
This round table was nevertheless to largely project to the exercise of the occupation of judicial officers and on their activities. The remarks made there and then were to reveal a great distortion of the statutory modes and the modes of intervention of our fellow-members in Africa. But the representatives of the UIHJ already knew about these matters.
Prospects for adhesion of Mauritania and Rwanda to the UIHJ
At the end of the debates, finalized by the two Chairmen, Mr. Saliou Aboudou (Benin) and Mr. Cheick Dimkinsedo Ouedraogo (Burkina Faso), Presidents Isnard and Netten were lengthily to discuss with Mr. Mohammed Ould Hannani, President of the supreme Court of Mauritania, and Mrs Kayitesi Emily Rusera, Judge at the Supreme Court of Rwanda, on the prospects of adhesion of the judicial officers of these two countries to the UIHJ.
It is not useless to point out that, in its recommendations, the seminar was to unanimously decide the great advantages of the principal transmission mode and the alternative transmission mode offered by the convention and to recognize the particular effectiveness of the direct transmission between members of the legal profession and judicial officers (art 10 b.).
Definitely, as President Isnard had declared in his introduction of his communication, “the relations between the Conference and the UIHJ could almost be considered as a romance as they have been going on for nearly 50 years”!
The holding of a similar meeting in “partnership with the UIHJ” is to be held within two years.
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