Judith is a third-year law student in the University of Burundi, where she enrolled after being the only girl in her high school. She participated to the 2014 Francophonie contest with the project “Promoting the French language in the face of cultural diversity and integration in the East African community”.

Her project is to create an association of lawyers called Programme d’Initiatives pour l’amélioration de l’accès aux mineurs incarcérés à la justice au Burundi (Program of Initiatives for the Improvement of Access to Justice for Incarcerated Minors in Burundi). It hopes to improve legal assistance and support for minors in general, particularly those who are incarcerated or reincarcerated. It intends to disseminate this association in as many schools as possible, and to encourage the use of alternative measures (community service, suspended sentences) to incarceration for juvenile primary offenders to enable young people in conflict with the law to enjoy other rights, in particular the right to education.

Salvator is the son of farmers, whose project intends to create a register with all the relevant information on incarcerated minors (age, sex, regions of origin, etc.). It also intends to examine the reasons for the imprisonment of these young people, the way they are treated, whether they are sufficiently protected by the institutions, and to set up a follow-up to identify cases of recidivism and try to understand them.

Salvator will provide monthly reports and advocates for substantial reforms with his empirical data and on-the-ground stories in churches, universities, judicial help and civil society groups, and intends to share his findings on relevant websites and news sources.