Country Listing

Ivory Coast Table of Contents

Ivory Coast

Crime and Punishment

The Constitution of Côte d'Ivoire establishes a legal basis for the Ivoirian criminal justice system. The right to a fair public trial is guaranteed by law, and that right generally was respected in urban areas. In rural areas, traditional justice often substituted for formal criminal law. By law, defendants are entitled to legal counsel, and the court is supposed to appoint lawyers for the indigent; however, attorneys were often not available.

Data as of November 1988