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This section looks at the performance of Mali’s customary and state justice systems. It discusses the prevalence and popularity of customary justice systems as providers of choice for most Malians despite their challenges of social conservatism, small scale and fragmentation, as well as their lack of transparency and consistency.
Mali's legal system derives from French civil law and customary law, and provides for judicial review of legislative acts in a Constitutional Court (which was formally established on 9 March 1994). Mali has not accepted compulsory ICJ jurisdiction. A Supreme Court was established in Bamako in 1969.
On December 30, a Bamako court convicted the 46 detained soldiers and sentenced them to 20 years in prison and a fine of two million CFA ($3,253) each. Separately, the court convicted in absentia the three soldiers freed in September and sentenced them to death and a fine of 20 million CFA ($32,530) for the same purported crimes.
Compounded with the historical distrust between the northern regions and Bamako, the 2012 conflict forced the Malian state out of the north, leaving an enduring institutional vacuum. As the result of an absent state, civil society and other groups took over to service the justice needs of citizens.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY. Mali had a constitutional democratic system that was upended in an August 2020 military coup d’etat. The country last held presidential elections in 2018, re-electing Ibrahim Boubacar Keita in elections that met minimum acceptable standards.
On May 4, Bamako’s Court of Appeals tried Lieutenant Mohamed Ouattara–a paratrooper arrested in 2014 along with Amara Sylla, Souleymane Sangare, Dramane Traore, and Thierry Diarra–for allegedly planning to threaten the president’s safety.
of Bamako against the ALS-Mali Laboratories Group and ETS KLENE with the intent not only to claim their rights and seek damages for the prejudices suffered, but also, to obtain the payment of workers’ benefits.
