Judicial Officers Discuss Role of Community Impact Statements
Hon. Justice Eldad Mwangusya (L - seated) and Hon. Justice Dr Bamwine (C - seated) and other stakeholders that attended the meeting at the Judicial Training Institute
The Sentencing Guidelines Committee has held a workshop on main streaming Community Impact Statements at Sentencing at the Judicial Training Institute (JTI) in Kampala.
Community Impact Statements are opinions from the locals where the accused person used to stay about his behavior, the sentence and views of accepting the accused back after serving the sentence.
The Principal Judge, Hon. Justice Dr. Yorokamu Bamwine in his keynote address urged participants to consider more deeply the mainstreaming of community impact statements during the sentencing process in context of case backlog.
Hesaid one of the motivations for the development of Sentencing Guidelines wasthat "the public had no direct in-put/ participation in the sentencing processto allow court get the feeling of the community as regards the seriousness ofthe offence."
The meeting was attended by judicial officers, the Director of Public Prosecution and Judiciary Technical Advisor Mr. Andrew Khaukha.
Dr.Maureen Owor-Mapp, a representative from the University of Birmingham said,"sentence reforms help to boost restorative and therapeutic interventions in the criminal Justice system to give the victim culturally appropriate remedy, improve offender engagement with the system while promoting a community engagement in the sentencing process."
The meeting was facilitated by the University of Birmingham and Judicial Training Institute (JTI).
Posted 16th, August 2017
