Abdelkrim Grini, the child from Montpellier who became a prosecutor, gives his testimony to Paillade Campus

In December, Paillade Campus brought the law into the streets and notably received Abdelkrim Grini, prosecutor of Alès. D.R.

For the end of the year and still in the open air, Paillade Campus looked at these two notions with this new agora with the testimonies of professionals.

Transformed into an open-air amphitheater, the Paillade market square welcomed, at the end of December, around fifty residents from all walks of life, who came to listen to several actors from the judicial world (lawyer, former president of the bar, jurist, prosecutor, students, etc.).
Professionals who came to talk about their profession and their relationship with the law.

This agora took place as part of the activities of Paillade Campus, an open-air university project that has several similar events to its credit. Thus, on December 6, the philosopher Thierry Paquot spoke with high school students and residents.

Child of the Paillade neighborhood

This time, the idea was to bring the theme of law to the heart of public debate and to the public square. Guided by the questions of Lazreg Ghenaim, host of this meeting, the guests were able to present their careers and deliver their personal thoughts, all in a warm atmosphere, around a few coffees.

The first voice to be raised was that of Abdelkrim Grini, public prosecutor of Alès and, as he proudly recalled, a child of the La Paillade neighborhood (but also a former lawyer at the Montpellier bar). His attraction to law began within the JPPN association (Jeunes Phobos Paillade Nord) created by Henri Quatrefages.

Making things happen through legal combat

“That’s when this desire, this will to fight against racism and discrimination, and perhaps also the vocation and the desire to become a lawyer, was formed in my mind,” he said. And that’s what he did. From the Garrigues college to the university via the Mas-de-Tesse high school, his career led him to practice the profession for more than ten years before joining the judiciary.

“We can change a lot of things, society, ideas, not through violence, but simply through legal combat, through trials,” says the prosecutor, referring to the recent historic trial of Mazan. The main thing, according to him, lies in the importance of debate. “That's the strength of law, it's changing mentalities, thanks to legal debate.”

Houda Choisy-Bouadar, “born into law”

For Houda Choisy-Bouadar, a lawyer and, since 2021, territorial delegate of the Defender of Rights in Hérault, law seems to have been an obvious choice very early on. “I was born into law. Since I was little, I was in a family where I asked the question: “Why don’t I have the right ?”, so it’s a word that I repeated all the time. The spearhead of her commitments: the fight against sexist and sexual violence. I am a lawyer, French, Arab and feminist.”

One does not go without the other, she says. She has worked for seventeen years at the Information Center on the Rights of Women and Families and is currently dedicated to children’s and youth rights. On Friday, January 31, 2025, it will also be possible to go and listen to her conference on parenting and the prevention of juvenile delinquency, which she will give in French and Arabic at the Maison pour tous Louis-Feuillade.