The Ivorian Council of Ministers Wednesday adopted a bill introducing sweeping amendments to the Penal Code aimed at strengthening penalties for environmental offences and illegal gold mining.
The wide-ranging reform introduces significantly tougher criminal sanctions against illegal gold mining, providing for severe cumulative prison sentences targeting the entire chain of actors involved in the activity.
Presented by the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights, the amendment to the June 26, 2019 law follows a regular review of the country’s criminal justice framework. It is intended to align Ivorian legislation with international commitments and strengthen efforts to combat crime in its various forms.
While the bill also enhances protections for vulnerable groups, particularly women and minors, against rape and sexual offences, and strengthens protections for public authority by imposing tougher penalties for insults or abusive conduct directed at village chiefs and traditional kings, its environmental provisions represent a major shift.
Under the proposed legislation, serious environmental offences would be subject to substantially stronger criminal penalties. Unauthorized land reclamation activities affecting the sea and inland waterways would also carry significantly heavier sanctions.
However, it is illegal gold mining—considered particularly harmful to public health and biodiversity—that is the primary target of the reform. Prison terms and financial penalties would no longer be applied as alternatives; instead, they would be increased and made cumulative.
A key innovation of the bill is the extension of criminal liability across the entire economic chain supporting the illicit activity. New standalone offences would be created to identify, prosecute and punish all actors involved in illegal mining networks.
The legislation targets the organisers and masterminds of illicit operations, financiers and backers, handlers and intermediaries, as well as complicit landowners who lease or make their land available for illegal mining activities.
To strengthen enforcement, the bill also focuses on internal complicity within public institutions. It provides for prison sentences of up to 20 years for public officials found guilty of facilitating or participating in illegal mining operations.
The criminal law reform complements the emergency action plan recently announced by the National Security Council (NSC), which includes the deployment of 21 river security units to monitor the country’s waterways.
Through these major amendments to the Penal Code, Côte d’Ivoire aims to strengthen its legal framework for environmental protection and intensify efforts to eradicate illegal gold mining.
AP/lb/as/APA