BEPI SAHEL – Project to Support Legal Cooperation in Criminal Matters

The Greater Sahel region is faced with major problems of instability, marked by intercommunity violence, Jihadist insurgencies, and growing frustration among people who suffer from limited access to basic services.

The permeability of borders contributes to this deteriorated security situation and facilitates the expansion of terrorist and organised crime networks based on human trafficking and the trafficking of many goods (weapons, medicines, drugs). 

Combating these forms of transnational crime requires an effective and coordinated judicial response. In a context where suspects, victims, evidence, witnesses, experts, and the proceeds of crime are to be found across borders, it is essential to develop and strengthen judicial cooperation mechanisms.

With the BEPI Sahel project, Expertise France is assisting the Ministries of Justice and operators involved in the cooperation process for criminal matters in six countries in the region: Benin, Chad, Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea, Mauritania and Senegal.

With financing from AFD and at the request of its partners, Expertise France is contributing to the fight against transnational crime by reinforcing judicial mechanisms. 

More specifically, the project is helping strengthen the strategic and operational management of services responsible for international mutual legal assistance, judicial cooperation, and the fight against impunity. This action is increasing the capacity of judicial bodies to try complex criminal cases.

The activities implemented under the BEPI Sahel project are based on two main lines of action.

1. Creating Offices of International Cooperation in Criminal Matters (OICCM) and strengthening operators in international judicial cooperation in criminal matters

The services and operators responsible for international judicial cooperation in each of the six countries of operation benefit from capacity building activities, enabling them to combat impunity through an improved handling of criminal cases with foreign elements. They work in synergy with the various control bodies (such as the police, gendarmerie and national guard) and the general public.

The activities include:

• Support for the monitoring-evaluation mechanism
• The preparation of national assessments
• The preparation and adoption of national strategic roadmaps
• The implementation of national action plans, for example, to support legislative drafting, in-service training for judicial operators, and pre-service training for judges and court clerks  

2. Improving regional judicial cooperation and relations between OICCMs

Regional cooperation between the services responsible for judicial cooperation is established and facilitated by the provision of technical assistance and an interconnection between the services of the OICCMs. This includes:

• The development and operationalisation of a secure regional platform for exchanges
• The development of harmonised decision-making tools
• The organisation of 12 regional thematic seminars
• The preparation of a practical guide on cooperation in criminal matters in the G5 Sahel region and Senegal