18 October 2012 - A symposium on Military versus Common Criminal Justice sponsored by the UN Integrated Peace-building Office in Guinea-Bissau (UNIOGBIS) was held in Bissau on 16-17 October 2012. Sixty (60) participants drawn from the judiciary police (05), bar association (03), prosecutor's office (21), judges (10) and Higher Military Court (21), participated in the event, which was held under the patronage of Guinea-Bissau's Attorney General and Higher Military Court. The participants included eight women.
 

UNIOGBIS assisted with organizational and managerial aspects of the event, which brought together members of the country's criminal and military prosecution and judiciary on a common platform to discuss investigations in their respective jurisdictions. It provided participants with an opportunity to come up with proposals to harmonize the criminal and military justice systems, including legal review and capacity-building measures.

Topics discussed included crimes that are essentially military and those belonging to common criminal justice; institutional military and civilian cooperation in combating crime; military penal law and regulations; military discipline; the historical evolution of military criminal justice; and military judicial police and their relations with other police organs.

A common focus of the discussions was the need to urgently train and establish a professional military judiciary police, with the engagement of the civilian judiciary police.

The main recommendations from the symposium include a call for the organisation of more training events and seminars so as to foster the exchange of experiences between magistrates operating within the military justice and common criminal courts. Other recommendations covered areas such as training in investigation for military judicial police officers and awareness campaigns on various aspects of civil and military justice, including the code of military justice.

The participants also recommended the review of all laws applicable to military justice so as to adapt them to current realities and make sure they conform to the Constitution, the repeal of Law No. 2/78 of 18 May regarding the competencies of the military court and the creation of other laws pertaining to judicial cooperation to ensure effective and fair implementation of criminal justice. Yet another recommendation regarded assistance in creating the infrastructure needed to enhance the effectiveness of the criminal justice system.

These recommendations are to be taken up by the yearly National Criminal Justice Forum at its next session, which has been proposed for 27-29 November 2012. The Forum's mandate includes providing a report with consolidated recommendations to the partners of the criminal justice system, both civilian and military, and to the political authorities, after a thorough discussion with various criminal justice actors and civil society members.