A/HRC/25/73 IV. Functioning of the justice system A. Combating impunity, equitable justice 34. The release, pending trial, in August 2013 of 14 persons associated with the former regime is a particularly important step that promotes political dialogue and national reconciliation. The presidential amnesty granted to approximately 3,000 persons convicted of minor offences will foster healing in Ivorian society and helps to relieve crowding at places of detention. This decision must, however, be accompanied by urgent social measures to lessen its social and economic impact. 35. The Independent Expert remains concerned about the calendar for trials currently under way. Seeking truth and combating impunity must be the core priorities for the courts. Ensuring equitable justice means that the justice system must be able to complete the judicial procedures now under way and to initiate cases against both sides, as recommended by the International Conference on Impunity and Equitable Justice in Côte d’Ivoire, held in Yamoussoukro in February 2013. On 10 July 2013 the indictment division issued a decision concerning 84 defendants associated with the former President, Laurent Gbagbo, but no one close to the current Government has been prosecuted for acts committed during the postelection crisis, although according to the report of the National Commission of Inquiry, such persons were allegedly responsible for the deaths of over 500 people. The authorities present only the arrest of Amadé Ouérémi, for the events at Mount Péko, in Duékoué,4 as a sign of balance in the current list of prosecutions. The investigating judge responsible for that case has been transferred to a position as a temporary prosecutor in Bouaké. 36. In this connection, the Independent Expert should like to reiterate his concern about the impact that the rotation of judges has had on the cases currently under way. The independence of judges is enshrined in the Constitution, specifically in article 103, which sets out that “in the performance of their duties, judges shall not be subject to anything other than the authority of the law”. All those who committed serious human rights violations must be prosecuted, whatever their ethnic origin or political affiliation may be. 37. The Independent Expert should like once again to express his concern about the slow pace of the justice system, in particular for cases of high-profile, serious human rights violations such as the Nahibly massacres and the mass grave at Torgueï. He notes that the exhumation operations for persons killed during the crisis in Yopougon have ended. Despite these operations, undertaken with the support of UNOCI, there has still been no follow-up by the justice system. 38. The Independent Expert notes the decision by the Ligue ivoirienne des droits de l’homme (Ivorian League for Human Rights) (LIDHO) and the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) to press charges before the International Criminal Court in the trial currently under way against the former President, Laurent Gbagbo, et al., and before the Ivorian courts for the events that took place in Nahibly. The Independent Expert encourages those organizations to see such procedures through so as to make the voices of the victims of human rights violations heard more clearly. 39. The fact that persons allegedly involved in human rights violations are now in high positions of political power and in charge of security questions has prompted Ivorian and international human rights organizations to raise legitimate questions about the possibility 4 10 Communiqué from the Ministry of State for Internal Affairs and Security, available (in French) at: www.addr.ci/communique1.php?PHPSESSID=ro5v437q58ll248b9vc6g6l7q4. GE.14-10154