A 2.7 Million Euro Project Managed by Acojuris

Enhancing the Capacities of the Ministry of Justice and Training its Staff as a First Step to the Smooth Running of Justice

Beirut, Al-Hayat

“Justice is the foundation of governance” reads the slogan at the entrance of the Palace of Justice in Beirut, Mother of Laws (Berytus Nutrix Legum – Beirut). However, it rarely still catches the eye of passersby or even the building’s visitors and employees.

As a matter of fact, the judicial sector in Lebanon is not very different from other official sectors, crippled by administrative slackness, weak financial and human resources, not to mention other obstacles that make the work in judicial departments rather unprofessional.

While in theory, all workers in the justice sector – clerks, forensic doctors, judicial police, lawyers, and so many others – are supposed to follow special training sessions at the judicial training institute before assuming their duties, the reality lies way behind. Ever since the 1960s, the institute has been dedicated to the initial training of judges only, and this has created a great gap in skills and qualifications. A rapid interference was due in order to save what can be saved.

Based on this urgent need, an EU initiative was launched with a 2.7 million Euro grant to the Ministry of Justice for the training of judicial sector personnel (judges, legal assistants, notaries public, experts, and lawyers. The EU had previously offered a grant to Lebanon through the “Support to the Implementation of Reforms” project that was implemented by the project management office at the Grand Serail. The Ministry of Justice benefited from this program through the “Enhancement of the Capacities of the Ministry of Justice – Supporting Professionalism” project that is being implemented by the Agency for International Legal Co-operation (Acojuris). The project also involves offering the necessary support for strengthening the capacities of the ministry of Justice – Institute of Judicial Studies, the Legislative and Consultative Body, the Cases Committee, and the Beirut Bar Association.

Acojuris project Manager Amal Abdallah said that 25 training sessions have been implemented to this day (one session a week), with 850 legal assistants as beneficiaries (in the previous project). Abdallah added that one of the main problems faced by the team is the psychological rejection of the employees, as the same question was frequently asked: “Why us and not them?”. “Since these sessions were not mandatory, they were avoided at first, as most employees in general refuse to acknowledge any lack of experience or skills . However, when lawyers and judges also took part in the sessions, this moral barrier was lifted – especially after witnessing concrete results on the ground.

The workshops involved the elimination of computer illiteracy through sessions for inserting all judicial files into a database, as well as penal and civil procedures, taxes, judiciary organization... As for the next phase of the project, it will involve the full automation of courts, including mediation, which is absent from the Lebanese judicial system but which is sought to be introduced through the judicial mediation project. This is in addition to the management of lawyer offices and the code of ethics. For instance, if a law student graduates and wants to open an office, he/she needs to know the conditions and obligations and way of managing the office according to professional rules, conditions, and ethics.

Perhaps the greatest positive effect of these sessions was made on medical examiners in Lebanon. According to Abdallah, “forensic doctors feel extremely neglected. Although their degrees are essential for court work, they have extremely bad working conditions and extremely just demands”. She then added, “The basic requirements for this profession, such as autopsy rooms, are not available even in universities. Also, most of the time the doctors themselves do not have a legal background, as they are graduates of different schools and most of them are not specialized in criminal medical examination.”

According to forensic doctor Bilal Sablouh, who was in the first group that received training in the Judicial Studies Institute before he became a trainer at the Institute, “The profession of medical examiner in Lebanon is not organized. The examination of corpses takes place in emergency rooms or external clinics. If there is a need for autopsy, the corpse is moved to governmental hospitals – the only eligible place for autopsies. However, these hospitals are not properly equipped with autopsy rooms, and are only supervised by the Ministry of Public Health, rather than also by the Ministry of Justice.” Sablouh is one of 6 Lebanese forensic doctors who spent 7 days in Paris and 7 days in London, where they received intensive training through the EU project “Improving penal chain”, in coordination with Acojuris, and as a complement of the training sessions managed by Acojuris at the Ministry of justice. Sablouh considered the training abroad to be not only a precious opportunity for the exchange of experience and knowledge and getting acquainted with everything new, but also an opportunity to raise the voice of protest against the poor state of this profession in Lebanon. In addition to the absence of the necessary equipment in the hospitals, there are other obstacles faced by medical examiners and that are also reflected on the investigation in progress and hence the judgment. Sablouh gave a simple example: in case of sexual or physical assault, the medical examiner has to examine the victim in the police station in front of the policemen. “We sometimes ask the policeman to leave the room, especially in the case of sexual assault, but the actual examination remains difficult, as police stations are not equipped with hospital beds or appropriate lighting. This is in addition to the fact that any medical procedure needed by the examiner (even simple blood tests), requires the written approval of the attorney general.”

It becomes even harder for the medical examiner when the attorney general asks him to perform an autopsy to know the cause of death, and the dead person’s family refuses for socio-religious reasons and threatens the examiner’s safety. In case of death from a car accident, a crime or even a mysterious death, the hospital notifies the closest police station, which in turn notifies the attorney general. He is the one who issues the order for the examiner to perform his job. However, the idea of autopsy is rejected most of the times, especially that there are no laws to support it or protect the examiner from the wrath of the deceased’s family.

The training sessions organized by Acojuris are focused on these legal and practical aspects. The project’s current first stage was completed by sending a group of trainees to Europe, just for the forensic as a first step, but other actors will be involved later on. The second stage begins at the end of 2009 and is also divided into two parts: theoretical and practical.

The profession of medical examiner in Lebanon suffers from an excess in human resources, but at the same time, it is not properly legislated. Since the relevant decrees go back to pre-1946, this puts a legal obstacle before medical examiners. Each of them belongs to a different school and evaluates damages according to the laws of the country in which he studied – in light of the legal loophole in Lebanon. These differences are apparent in the reports they submit to the court and affect, albeit indirectly, the outcome of the judgments.

The profession of medical examiners is but one aspect of a more comprehensive work performed by Acojuris, which includes in its board of directors French judicial bodies, in the framework of the EU grant. To date, the project has witnessed the organization of 16 general and practical conferences addressed to 475 judges, 28 conferences addressed to 850 legal assistants, 14 conferences addressed to 100 notaries public and 100 legal experts, and 4 general and practical sessions for 1000 lawyers. These activities are organized with the technical and consultative assistance of the Lebanese Ministry of Justice and the Beirut Bar Association.