A/HRC/22/66 63. The Expert welcomes the fact that trials before the military court have begun. On 2 October 2012, he attended the opening of the first hearing in the case of The Prosecution v. General Dogbo Blé Brunot and four others, the first major trial involving high-level military figures in respect of acts committed during the post-electoral crisis. The Expert deplores the slow pace of proceedings before the civil courts and the fact that the preventive detention of persons charged in the context of that crisis is being extended indefinitely. Preventive detention should be an exceptional measure and its abuse raises real human rights problems. Persons who have been arrested and detained on criminal charges must be brought promptly before a judge and tried within a reasonable period, or released. 64. The Expert is concerned about the lack of impartiality in the current strategy for the pursuit of justice in Côte d’Ivoire. No serious proceedings have yet been brought against members of the FRCI and their associates. The Expert raised this question when he met with the Public Prosecutor of Abidjan; the Public Prosecutor replied that the magistrate of the ninth investigations office in charge of crimes committed in Duékoué during the postelectoral crisis had initiated proceedings, but was not able to go to the west of the country for security reasons. He said that the slow pace of justice was more dependent on the investigations offices, but that the civil proceedings should have started last November, although they had not done so. 65. The Expert takes note of the charges of genocide against 48 persons including seven figures such as Simone Gbagbo; former Prime Minister Pascal Affi N’Guessan; Geneviève Bro Grébé, the President of Femmes patriotes; former Deputy Chairperson of FPI, Aboudrahamane Sangaré; former Minister of Finance Désiré Noel Laurent Dallo; Alcide Djédjé, Minister for Foreign Affairs in the last, unrecognized Government of former President Gbagbo; Professor Gilbert Aké N’gbo, Prime Minister in the last, unrecognized Government of former President Gbagbo; and former Commander of the Presidential Guard, General Bruno Dogbo Blé. The other charges of genocide are against 41 Ivorian nationals extradited from Liberia in June 2012 following an attack on UNOCI peacekeepers. 66. The Expert notes with concern the gaps in the definition of the crime of genocide in the Ivorian Criminal Code, which does not meet the international standards set out in international instruments, in particular the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide of 9 December 1946 and the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. The definition of genocide contained in article 137 of the Criminal Code is ambivalent and inexact; it is broader than that contained in international instruments, particularly as it applies the term “genocide” to political groups, while at the same time it is more restrictive, failing to apply the term to racial groups and ignoring the concept of “as such” associated with victim groups. 67. In view of these shortcomings, observers rightly wonder whether the genocide charges are relevant in the Ivorian context and whether the national justice system might be discredited if it were perceived to have recourse to legal precepts of the utmost gravity without the necessary rigour. D. Prosecutions before the International Criminal Court 68. On 26 September 2012, the Council of Ministers adopted two bills in preparation for the ratification of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. One was a bill amending the Constitution, with a view to enabling Côte d’Ivoire to ratify the Rome Statute, while the other was a bill authorizing the Head of State to ratify the Rome Statute. The National Assembly adopted Act No. 2012-1134 of 13 December 2012 concerning the ICC, introducing article 85 bis under title VI of the Constitution, according to which: “The Republic may recognize the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court as provided for GE.13-10074 15