Discours de Monsieur Laurent Esso, Ministre d'État, Ministre de la Justice, Garde des Sceaux, à l'ouverture de la séance de travail avec les avocats

REPUBLIC OF CAMEROON Peace – Work – Fatherland REPUBLIQUEDU CAMEROUN Paix – Travail – Patrie

# SPEECH

BY

# MR LAURENT ESSO

# MINISTER OF STATE

Minister of Justice and Keeper of the Seals

AT THE OPENING CEREMONY

# ON THE CONSULTATION WITH THE BAR ASSOCIATION

YAOUNDE THE 22TH NOVEMBER 2016

The Minister of Public Service and Administrative Reform, The Minister Delegate at the Presidency of the Republic in charge of the Supreme State Audit, The Minister Delegate to the Minister of Territorial Administration and Decentralization in charge of Councils, Mr. President of the Bar Association, Mr. President of the General Assembly of the Cameroon Bar, Former Presidents of the Bar, The Former President of the General Assembly of the Cameroon Bar, Dear Lawyers, Bailiffs and Notaries Public, Ladies and Gentlemen, Distinguished guests,

It is with great pleasure that I welcome you in the conference room of the Ministry of Justice.

I would first of all like to thank you for honouring the invitation to attend this consultation.

Although the agenda of our meeting is included in the said invitation, permit me to recall that during our deliberations we will examine issues relating to the:

1. Supervision and training of Advocates-in-training as well as Practice at the Bar (Presentation by The President of the Bar);
2. Setting up of a Law School (Introductory remarks by the Director of Judicial Professions);
3. Modalities for implementing the OHADA Uniform Acts (Introductory remarks by the Director of Legislation);
4. The Implementation of Uniform Acts in the Jurisdictions of the North West and South West (introductory presentations by the Procureurs General of the Courts of Appeal, North West and South West);

1

1. Debates; and
2. Miscellaneous.

On the first point, I must say that not long ago, precisely on 18 December 2014, the President of the Republic absorbed some five hundred (500) Judicial and Legal Officers into the corps of Judicial and Legal Services.

During the last Heads of Court meeting, held on 18 and 19 August 2016, we discussed the supervision of young Judicial and Legal Officers and their participation in the functioning of the courts.

The relevant presentations were made by Procureurs General of Courts of Appeal.

While some 1453 Advocates-in-training are being trained, after passing the Bar Part I Examination of 24 October 2014, the Ministry of Justice which is the supervisory authority of the Bar would like to be informed on their supervision and training; more generally, the Ministry of Justice would like to be informed on the main features of Practice at the Bar which Bar is presently composed of some 3,539 stakeholders; including 2,086 Advocates and 1,453 Advocates-in-training as I said earlier.

Given that the issue of training and capacity building of judicial stakeholders is acute and directly affects the smooth functioning of courts, the Ministry of Justice started carrying out, some time ago, a study on the setting up of a Law School.