Christiane Taubira
Minister of Justice
30 months of actions and commitments
Since May 2012, the Minister of Justice, Christiane Taubira, has
been implementing numerous measures to modernize french
Justice and enable citizens to have their rights recognized.
Concrete actions that change citizens’ everyday life
Actions that improve justice service throughout the country
Actions that ensure a more independent, more efficient
and more equitable justice
Concrete actions that change
citizens’ everyday life
Accessing to a judge is now free…
…thanks to the suppression of the 35 € tax.
Victims are better taken care of …
… with the reinforcement of victim rights through the criminal law reform; the extension of Victim Assistance Bureaus (+ 100) to 160 bureaus throughout the country or
one in every high court; a 25% increase of the Victim Assistance associations’ budget
in 2013 (that is 12.8 M €. 13.7M € are also provided for 2014) ; the experimentation
of individualized support for victims in 8 high courts.
Justice sites are closer to citizens …
…thanks to the relocation of 3 high courts and the creation of 4 high court’s detached chambers.
Families are better protected …
… by ensuring protecting measures for adults under guardianship over 5 years
and allowing marriage for same-sex couples.
Small inheritances are supported …
… by facilitating modest successions (- 5,335 €) and allowing personal objects
to be passed on.
Legal procedures are simplified …
… thanks to the implementation of electronic communication between courts and
users ; through the Order of 30 July 2014 on simplifying businesses’ life and
securing judiciary acts.
Solutions for ailing businesses …
… With the collective procedures reform which reinforces and extends detection
and prevention measures for ailing businesses, improves access to prevention
procedures, creates a fast-track safeguard procedure and enhances business manager rebound.
Women victims of violence and most vulnerable people are
better protected …
… thanks to the generalization of the “Great Danger Telephone » or « Téléphone
Grand Danger » (TGD).
Actions that improve justice service
throughout the country
Boosted recruitments in jurisdictions …
… 300 student magistrates (the number of candidates to classic competitive
examination has doubled) and 1,084 court registers who have arrived in
jurisdictions in the Fall 2014.
Upgraded judicial staff …
… thanks to a Staff Regulation reform for registers and chief registers and to the
allowance system upgrade for Judicial Service administrative assistants and administrative and technical junior assistants ; thanks to a 20-million-euro memorandum of understanding on prison warder corps statute.
Improving professional life conditions for the Ministry officials …
… thanks to an action plan to prevent suffering at work; thanks to the filling
of 536 vacancies including 200 filled this year in Prison Services to face
prison overpopulation.
Reinforcing security in prison …
… with a 33-million-euro security plan for prisons and the implementation
of a plan to fight against violence.
More dignified conditions of detention …
… through the renovation or construction of 2,347 cells, the inauguration of
5 new prisons and the implementation of a program providing more prisons
with family life units (Unités de vie familiales or UVF) or visiting rooms.
Minors better supervised …
… with the recruiting of 205 Youth Judicial Protection Service officials - including 179 educators - and the creation of 8 Closed Educating Centers (Centre
éducatifs fermés or CEF) ; by assuring that juvenile offenders do not drop out
of school thanks to support classes and support boarding schools ; with the
reform of the Order of 2 February 1945 scheduled for the first semester of
2015 ; thanks to the Unaccompanied Foreign Minors scheme.
Adapting general penal policy to territories
… through 6 territorial penal circulars.
Appropriately targetting delinquance …
… with 80 Priority Secure Areas (Zones Sécuritaires Prioritaires or ZSP)
including 4 overseas.
A more efficient justice for labor issues …
…With a labor courts reform as recommended in the Lacabarats Report.
Actions that ensure a more independent,
more efficient and more equitable justice
Interferences in penal cases are now stopped …
… with the prohibition of instructions from the Minister of Justice to prosecutors
in individual cases.
Fighting against corruption and fiscal fraud …
… with new tools to seize financial offenders’ assets and patrimony and
with a new national General Prosecutor specialized in financial matters.
Also, thanks to the Decree of 11 July 2014 on the control of funds used to
settle lawyer’s fees, whose aim is notably to improve the fight against money
laundering.
Defense rights are reinforced …
… through the transposition of european directives ensuring that, in penal
case, the suspect is better informed about his or her rights and about the
investigation.
More individualized and efficient sentences …
… with the criminal justice reform that abolishes automatic sentences, creates
a probation penalty suitable to every situation and provides for compulsory
examination of the offender’s personal situation towards the end of his/her
sentence, which ensures a proper individualized follow-up outside prison,
thus fighting more efficiently against the risk of re-offending.
Taking into account studies and statistics to act …
… through the creation of a Re-offending and Desistence Observatory.
Strengthen Justice within the European Union …
… thanks to major steps forward in the creation of a European Public Prosecutor.
Contacts presse – Cabinet de la garde des Sceaux : 01 44 77 22 02
[email protected]
Edition : novembre 2014