In September 2023, with the support of the United States State Department, the IIJ’s Academic Unit delivered the fourth “Counter-Terrorism: Academic Curriculum” online course (eCTAC) on proactive investigations and prosecution for 24 prosecutors and examining judges from six French-speaking civil law countries in West Africa and the Sahel (Benin, Central African Republic, Chad, Ivory Coast, Mauritania, and Togo).
This course included one week of online learning guided by the Academic Unit’s online learning management platform, as well as two subsequent weeks of live sessions. These live sessions included three small-group interactive tutorial sessions on “Effective Coordination Between Investigators and Prosecutors”, “Collection of Evidence for Successful Prosecutions”, and “Cross-Border Investigations”. The course was delivered in French with the support of the Academic Unit’s Director Judge Marie Compère and Resident Fellow and former Niamey Public Prosecutor, Mr. Cheibou Samna.
Practitioners actively engaged with the course materials and in the live sessions. Overall, they found the eCTAC course both rigorous and relevant to their work. Mr. Dingamadji Carlos Rotta, Chad’s Director of Legislation and Agreements, declared that “thanks to this course, improvements will be made to [his] country’s legislation”. He added: “Through [his] position, legislative reforms will be carried out on the basis of the Institute’s recommendations”. Mr. Placide-Clement Mawunou, Deputy Public Prosecutor at the Lomé Court of Appeal in Togo, meanwhile, expressed that the cohort “learned something very fundamental with the IIJ: teamwork and the coordination plan”. He added that “the values and best practices [they] learned during this training course are a string [they] will add to [their] work bow”.
For more information on the eCTAC, please contact Programme Manager Ikram Mensi.