Opening of the workshop. From right to left: Imed Derouiche, Prosecutor General and Director of the Judiciary at the Tunisian Ministry of Justice; Cherif Snoussi, Head of the General Directorate of Prisons and Rehabilitation; Mohamed Abidi, Head of the IRZ's Africa Project Area (photo: IRZ) Tunisia
The IRZ organised a face-to-face workshop in Tunis from 8-9 March 2022 with the Tunisian Ministry of Justice and the Tunisian penitentiary authorities (Comité Général des Prisons et de la Rééducation/CGPR) on the theme “Rehabilitation Plan, Preparation for release and Reintegration”.
The workshop was designed as exchange of experience on potential procedures to establish individual rehabilitation plans, to determine individual therapy programmes for prisoners, to prepare prisoners for release (transition management) and to discuss the methodology for successful reintegration of offenders after their release from prison.
The Tunisian partners were represented at a high level by Mr Imed Derouiche, Prosecutor General and Director of the Judiciary at the Tunisian Ministry of Justice and Mr Cherif Snoussi, Head of the General Directorate of Prisons and Rehabilitation for the Tunisian penitentiary authorities.
In accordance with the theme of the workshop, the Tunisian contingent was represented by the professional groups involved in prison planning, the preparation of prisoners for release and the reintegration of inmates released from prison. Participants from the penitentiary judiciary, the legal profession and sociologists, psychologists and representatives from the Ministry of Justice also attended the workshop along with members of the penitentiary authorities and the prison service.
The German team comprised the following experts:
Kai Abraham, Correctional Officer at the Justizvollzugsanstalt für Frauen, Berlin (women’s correctional facility)
Pascal Décarpes, Criminologist and international advisor to the European Union on the penitentiary system and resocialisation
The Tunisian partner institutions were represented by the following experts:
Mounir Ben Nsir, General Advisor, penitentiary authority
Tarek Elfanni, General Advisor, penitentiary authority
Issemeddine El Amine, General Advisor, penitentiary authority
Mohamed Miled, General Advisor, penitentiary authority
The penal and prison legislation in Tunisia has undergone a fundamental and comprehensive process of reform since 2014. In terms of the penitentiary system, the focus is on improving prison conditions, implementing international human rights standards and strengthening the resocialisation measures for released offenders. Successful reintegration of released prisoners should contribute to reducing the recidivism rate and thus counteract the steadily growing overcrowding of prisons in Tunisia.
The IRZ is contributing to this reform process through consultations which aim to humanise the penal system in the long term.
On 5 November 2021, the first issue of the legal journal "Kitabat" (French title "Ecrits") was ceremonially presented in Tunis. The joint project of IRZ and the Research Centre for Dispute Resolution and Enforcement Methods of the Faculty of Law and Political Science of the Université de Tunis El Manar is funded under the institutional grant of the Federal Ministry of Justice. Its aim is to make legal expertise and the exchange of experiences on various topics accessible not only during the IRZ events. The first issue of the legal journal contributes to the scientific and practical cooperation between Tunisian, French and German lawyers and promotes the exchange on current legal problems.
Due to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, the topic of digitalisation has become more prominent in many areas of life and work. Not only in the German judiciary, but also in the partner countries of the Africa project section, the topic is intensively discussed and associated with the demand for a development push and thus a faster and stronger digitalisation. Against this background, the IRZ Africa project section conceived a series of events dedicated to the multifaceted topic of "Digitalisation of the Judiciary".
Following on from this series of events, Tunisian, French and German authors deal with this complex of topics in the first issue of the legal journal. In over 500 pages, lawyers from practice and academia exchange views on the digitalisation of the judiciary and other current legal debates.
The contributions from Tunisia, France and Germany are published in French or Arabic. In addition, expert articles in French, Arabic and German are summarised in a résumé.
Since the multi-faceted and multilingual journal has a lasting effect on the exchange of experience that takes place at IRZ events, further issues on current legal topics are planned for the future. The successful cooperation of IRZ with the Research Centre for Dispute Resolution and Enforcement Methods of the Faculty of Law and Political Science of the Université de Tunis El Manar is to be continued.
On 8 April 2021, IRZ organised an exchange of experiences on the “Enforcement of judgements and sentences” in a hybrid format. As well as representatives from the Tunisian Ministry of Justice, a number of criminal court judges from various courts in Tunisia and senior officials from prison administration were also present. The event took place as part of the joint working programme on legal cooperation between the German Federal Ministry of Justice and Consumer Protection and the Tunisian Ministry of Justice. The IRZ experts at the event were Andreas Stüve, Senior Public Prosecutor at the Düsseldorf Public Prosecutor’s Office, and Michael Nehring, a judge at the Regional Court of Bonn.
The following took part on behalf of the Tunisian project partners
Imed Derouiche, Prosecutor General in Tunisia and Head of the Judicial Service at the Tunisian Ministry of Justice
Omar Yahyaoui, a Public Prosecutor at the Ben Arous Court of first instance
Sonia Dridi, a sentencing judge at the Court of Manouba
Sinan Zbidi, a sentencing judge at the Court of Manouba
The subject of the event tied in with the Exchange of experiences on “Alternative forms of punishment and alternatives to pre-trial custody”, which took place in November 2020.
As well as discussing the fundamental principles and impediments to the lawful enforcement of judgements, the event also focussed on the roles played by public prosecutors and judges in the various sentencing options. Tunisia is currently taking advice on draft legislation for the new penal code. Alternative forms of punishment are already provided for by the law but are seldom applied. Alternatives to prison sentences, which until now have only existed in the form of rudimentary fines, also need to be reinforced.
Even though the aim in Tunisia is to enforce judgements as quickly as possible, the frequent absence of the defendants from the sentencing hearing is a major problem, since this means that the sentence cannot be enforced in these cases. As a result, the participants identified a need for the reform of national laws in Tunisia. There is also a requirement for improvements in the cooperation between judges, public prosecutors, the police and prison authorities when it comes to sentencing. A decision by the Ministry of Justice has already led to the introduction of a coordination unit.
With regards to sentencing and the use of alternative forms of punishment, the question of the maximum capacities of prisons also needs to be considered. In order to support the coordination between criminal justice and prison management, Tunisia has therefore introduced the position of enforcement judges. Enforcement judges are also responsible for imposing alternative forms of punishment.
The lively discussions between the participants showed that there is a requirement for further consultancy in Tunisia, particularly on the subject of enforcing fines and issues concerning the organisation and supervision of probation decisions. IRZ will therefore continue and intensify its cooperation with the Tunisian justice system in the field of alternative sanctions.
