Brazzaville (Rep. of Congo), 5 April 2019 – Judicial experts under the umbrella of the Great Lakes Judicial Cooperation Network met in Brazzaville, Republic of the Congo, on 4-5 April 2019. This was the fourth meeting of the Network since its establishment in November 2016.

The overall objective of the Network is to facilitate the administration of justice through judicial cooperation in the Great Lakes region. The Great Lakes Judicial Cooperation Network also contributes to the prevention and punishment of trans-border organized crimes, in all its manifestations from terrorist offences, sexual and gender-based violence and gross human rights violations.

The Great Lakes Judicial Cooperation Network today is the only existing mechanism in support of prosecutors and central judicial authorities of the 12 ICGLR countries to advance regional judicial cooperation and combat cross-border crime.

The meeting was organized by the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR) in collaboration with the Office of the United Nations Special Envoy for the Great Lakes and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). Previous meetings were held in Khartoum, Sudan, on 1-2 November 2017; Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania, 13-14 June 2018; and Kampala, Uganda, 12-13 November 2018.

The meeting brought together focal points of the Judicial Cooperation Network from the 12 countries of the ICGLR, as well as other judicial experts.