“Everyone loses when justice is corrupted, in particular the poor, who are forced to pay bribes they cannot afford,” explained Maitre Charles Nguini, President of TI Cameroon. “Fighting judicial corruption means an end to impunity for the corrupt.”

The launch highlighted the general findings of the study and the results of the Global Corruption Barometer – one of TI’s main indices – on questions related to judicial corruption. The key findings include pointing out that a functioning judiciary is essential for a country’s economic development, since legal insecurity shies investors away. The launch also drew attention to the four safeguards for judicial corruption and a diagnostic checklist that civil society can use to monitor judicial corruption.

In the months preceding the launch, TI C has organised seminars with representatives from the judicial sector in order to increase knowledge about the problem of corruption, to make the judiciary more effective in fighting corruption and to identify measures needed to minimise risks of corruption within the judiciary itself. Given the high perception of judicial corruption in Cameroon according to the Global Corruption Barometer 2007, these seminars were of high relevance and interest, addressing judge, magistrates, and lawyers from various regions and representatives from the ministry of justice.

To read press coverage of the launch please see (in French), All Africa, Cameroon Tribune, La Nouvelle Expression, and Le Messager.

To access the complete GCR online in pdf format, please go to: www.transparency.org/publications/gcr