Paris, December 12th, 2018

As part of the 25th anniversary of the Organization for the Harmonization of Business Law in Africa (OHADA), the Paris Bar, the International Open Commission, Convergence Afrique and the International Organization of the Francophonie (OIF) organized the first edition of the OHADA Day in Paris at the Louis-Edmond PETTITI Auditorium of the Maison du Barreau, on the theme: “Arbitration and mediation in the OHADA space”.

At the invitation of Barrister Marie-Aimée Peyron, President of the Paris Bar; the Permanent Secretary of OHADA, Professor Dorothé C. SOSSA, with Mr. Cesar Apollinaire ONDO MVE, President of the Common Court of Justice and Arbitration (CCJA), and Dr. Boubacar Sidiki DIARRAH, Director of Legal Affairs of the Organization have attended the event. The OHADA Day in Paris was also honored by some hundreds of participants, including the President of the National OHADA Commission of Guinea, the President of the OHADA Club of Bordeaux, lawyers from the Bars of Paris, Bordeaux, Montpellier and some OHADA Member States, representatives of the business community, students and researchers.

The President of Paris Bar thanked the Permanent Secretary of OHADA and the President of the CCJA for their effective presence at the OHADA Day in Paris. She recalled the Paris Bar's commitment to the cause of OHADA and praised the merits of this Organization, which is the pride of Africa. She pointed out that after the latest event of Abidjan Campus, the Paris Bar has decided to organize this meeting in Paris, to show the importance that its Institution dedicates to OHADA. She thanked the OIF for its financial support for the organization of this Day.

Taking the floor, Mr André BARRY, representative of the Director of Political Affairs and Democratic Governance of the OIF, thanked the Paris Bar for its availability and the OHADA delegation for its qualitative participation in the OHADA Day in Paris. He reaffirmed the OIF's commitment to support the OHADA and the Paris Bar actions.

In his intervention, the Permanent Secretary recalled the genesis of OHADA and the mission delegated to the Organization: to ensure the legal security of economic activities, in order to stimulate investment and create a new development pole in Africa. He stressed that the profound reform of the legal systems of the Member States initiated by OHADA was yielding fruit, appreciated both in terms of the substantive applicable Law to economic activities and in terms of improving dispute settlement systems. He added that the latest upgrading of OHADA Law on Alternative Dispute Resolution is based on the same philosophy.

Several rich topics as well as varied were then discussed at round tables: OHADA arbitration and mediation, innovations in reform, the challenges and perspectives of OHADA arbitration and mediation, the roles of the state judge and the CCJA in arbitration, the challenges and perspectives of arbitration and investment mediation thus sparked the exchanges between the panelists and the participants. On this occasion, the President of the CCJA highlighted the reasons for the reform, but also the advantages and innovations of the new texts adopted by OHADA in the field of arbitration and mediation.

Before closing up the meeting, the participants acclaimed the Permanent Secretary of OHADA for his exemplary leadership and the work accomplished during his two successive terms at the head of the prestigious Pan-African Organization, of which he has been able to promote its international influence and global success.

The first edition of the OHADA Day in Paris provided an opportunity for legal professionals, economic actors and French academics to exchange views on the strengths and prospects of OHADA arbitration and mediation, a joint initiative of the Paris Bar Association and the OIF, which comes after the OHADA Day in Lyon, once again demonstrated the strong interest that OHADA's legal integration model generates well beyond the borders of the African continent.

The Permanent Secretary expresses his deep gratitude to the organizers and all the participants for their renewed commitment to OHADA.

The Permanent Secretary,

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The Permanent Secretary,
Prof. Dorothé C. SOSSA

www.ohada.org