ASF and Inanga present a new study on community-based practices in the field of local justice in the Central African Republic. Conducted as part of the Justice Nzoni – fango ngbanga na beafrica project, funded by the European Union, the study aims to better understand the real mechanisms through which people access justice and to inform future action by stakeholders working in this field.
The report will be presented during a webinar on Thursday 25th June 2026.
A plural, hybrid form of local justice deeply rooted in social realities
The study highlights a central reality: in the Central African Republic, access to justice does not rely solely on state courts. On a daily basis, a wide range of actors are involved in the regulation of conflicts: neighbourhood and village chiefs, traditional leaders, defence and security forces, religious leaders, civil society organisations, women’s associations, administrative authorities and judicial actors.
These actors do not always operate according to strict legal categories. Disputes are often understood in terms of their level of seriousness, their potential social impact or the risk that they may escalate into violence. The priority is therefore not always to “settle” a dispute, but often to stabilise it, prevent escalation and preserve social cohesion.
This perspective invites us to move beyond the traditional opposition between state justice and so-called traditional justice. Local justice instead appears as a hybrid, pragmatic and relational system, in which different normative frameworks coexist: state law, personal experience, religious references, common sense, social practices and principles of conciliation.
Local chiefs at the heart of social regulation
Among the actors studied, neighbourhood and village chiefs occupy a central position. Their role is not limited to conflict resolution in the strict sense. They also carry out functions of prevention, listening, alerting, referral and mediation between communities and institutions.
The study nevertheless underlines that these chiefs cannot be reduced either to simple administrative intermediaries or to autonomous customary authorities. Their legitimacy is based on their proximity to the population, their permanent presence, their ability to defuse tensions and their recognition by communities as well as by certain institutions.
This intermediary position is both their strength and their weakness. They are frequently called upon, yet they often lack sufficient guidance, training and support.
A diversity of actors, between complementarity and tensions
The study also shows that other actors play an important role in local justice mechanisms.
Traditional leaders mainly intervene in situations with a high potential for crisis, particularly intercommunity, land-related or transhumance-related conflicts. Religious actors, especially in certain communities, serve as important moral and normative points of reference. Associations, particularly women’s organisations, play an essential role in providing support, advocacy and counterbalance, especially on issues related to gender-based violence, widowhood and inheritance.
The internal security forces, for their part, often fill an operational gap by providing a rapid response to conflicts. However, their intervention may also involve problematic practices, such as arbitrary arrests or the monetisation of procedures.
Finally, judicial actors themselves appear to be part of this local justice landscape. State justice is perceived both as a last resort and as a distant, costly or unpredictable institution. In practice, magistrates also help define the boundaries between what can be handled locally and what must necessarily be brought before the formal justice system.
Different realities across territories
The study, conducted in Bangui, the capital, and its surrounding areas, as well as in Bambari and Bouar, highlights significant regional variations that reveal an important dimension of local justice systems: the extent to which they are shaped by local realities.
In Bangui, the relationship between local chiefs, security forces and courts appears to be denser. In Bambari, the chief emerges more clearly as a key figure in the local order, at the intersection of security and justice issues; tensions with judicial police officers are also more explicit there. In Bouar, the study points to stronger criticism of mediation carried out by chiefs, particularly regarding risks of favouritism, as well as a more structured role for associative and religious platforms.
Strengthening, guiding and coordinating existing practices
One of the study’s major findings is that this diversity of actors and these regional differences require responses to be adapted to local realities, rather than applying uniform solutions across the country.
Existing local practices are used by communities and fulfil essential functions of prevention, referral and regulation.
However, they may also reproduce power relations, expose some people to unfair decisions or lead to the local handling of cases that should fall under the formal justice system, particularly in criminal matters.
The challenge, therefore, is not to deny these practices or idealise them, but to take them seriously and better understand them in order to support them, help guide their framework and coordinate them with the formal justice system. This requires, in particular, strengthening the capacities of local actors, clarifying each actor’s role, creating spaces for dialogue between local and judicial actors, and ensuring better protection of the rights of the most vulnerable people.
