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Topic Discussion IV
Achieving Good Governance
Controlling Corruption, Improving
Administration
and Strengthening the Rule of Law
Room 5
(6 of 18 pages)
In the recent past, three years ago there was a coup and the President left with
wealth and the extradition attempt failed and we found out that society remained expecting to see what would be
happening and what was being implemented on the top level in terms of legislation.
As far as we are concerned the measures that have been adopted and precisely in modernizing the whole system of
governance and I believe that in all countries it is a common topic and the institutions, the three bodies are
implementing plans in order to modernize the public administration.
I don't believe there we are going to obtain better results without a clear commitment to the meaning of modernization.
It is more than achieving the principles of democracy and for the purpose of transparency, the measures have not
been many and every time there was commitment, however it comes from the government to the people and has been
quite difficult.
In civil society what we have to do is announce to everybody all the rules to be played. For instance, as far as
parliament is concerned, the existing system, they have to know that all the people that request from society or
they have to be included in the laws and they have to be covered by the laws and also if the system is weak it
has to be modernized in order to adopt the measures of such as for instance standards without penalizing life.
Programs for the struggle against delinquency, unemployment and of course all the social problems of the population.
Thank you.
Madam Speaker: Many of our people are made to think about how to extend good governance to those may be
on the margins, either linguistically or politically or economically of the dominant governing system.
Our last speaker is Madam Elisabeth Pognon from Benin. We are very happy to have you here. Madam Pognon has a very
long distinguished career in the law in Benin and has served for several years as President of the Constitutional
Court of Benin
Madam Pognon: Thank you, Madam Chairperson. You will notice that there will be two to speak on behalf of
Benin. I will invite you to be indulgent because I will compete only by some specific point. The points that have
not been raised by Mrs. Massougbodji because we don't have much time to do so.
We have all assumed everybody is conscious that the judiciary power is a power that should be rather independent
from the executive and the legislative and in Benin most particularly we assumed this in one of our constitutional
provisions. That judiciary power is perceived as quality. It is like an appendix of executive power. We should
definitely correct this perception of the judiciary power and to render it independent.
How did we do that? We are trying to set this state of spirit in our country by rendering the judges independent,
autonomous. How could we render them autonomous? It was not sufficient to give them a material means. The training,
the high wage, the high salary will not be enough to make a judge independent who is subservient in his spirit
so we try to give them adequate training. However, that is also another aspect of independence which consists of
managing the career by the executive. How would you like a judge to face a Minister or a President of the Republic
to render verdicts by forgetting people. That this person will give him the promotion throughout his career? That
in Benin is a problem that we face and I think that we have placed a lot of effort and gave the management of the
career of judges to an institution which is the supreme council of the judiciary power. It is the one that gives
us advice to the nominations as well as the promotions in the judiciary and the President of the Republic should
respect the advice of this supreme council of justice.
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