JUDICIARY Latest Features

Hon. Justice Dr Bamwine speaking at the Stakeholders call for Quick Enactment of Legal Aid and Judiciary Administration Laws

Stakeholders in the Justice Sector have called for the quick enactment of both the Administration of the Judiciary and National Legal Aid laws. They also made action points for implementation by Parliament/Government, the Judiciary, Office of the DPP,Uganda Law Society, the Police and the Prisons Service.

The calls were made on Thursday during a half-day pre-Annual General Meeting and 4^th Access to Justice Conference, which was organized by the Legal Aid Service Providers Network(LASPNET) in conjunction with the Democratic Governance Facility (DGF).

The Principal Judge, Hon. Justice Dr Yorokamu Bamwine, who officiated at the event under theme: "Tracking Strategic Development Goal 16 to ensure peaceful, inclusive societies through enhancing access to justice for the most poor and vulnerable".

In the keynote address, Hon. Justice Dr. Bamwine said there is a constitutional demand for the Judiciary to be accountable to the people. "We have adopted a systematic way of engaging our stakeholders on a monthly and biannual basis," said Hon. Justice Dr. Bamwine.

He added: "At a monthly level, all the JLOS actors at a district level meet with the civic leaders and local leaders to discuss removing impediments to the administration of justice using home grown interventions. At biannual level, every court hosts an open day to show-case its services and opens up to public scrutiny.

"Other Judiciary leaders and I have used these events to address concerns of the public and to put across the case for the judiciary better. This honest and frank engagement between the Judiciary and the public has lowered the tensions between the two and promoted mutual respect, which is essential to building an accountable Judiciary."

The PJ further said the Judiciary operations are gender sensitive. "We ensure access and delivery of justice to all persons irrespective of gender...we address gender obstacles in the delivery of justice," he said.

Head of DGF, Mr. Wim Stoffers said his organization is committed to promote Prison decongestion as well as ensuring quick justice in cases of Sexual and Gender Based Violence. He asked the Judiciary to promote the protection of Human Rights as well as fast track the implementation of the JLOS Anti-Corruption Strategy.

LASPNET Executive Director, Ms Sylvia Namubiru Mukasa presented to the stakeholders a detailed report on the status of access to justice trends in the country as compiled by LASPNET.

The event attracted stakeholders from the Justice, Law and Order Sector, Development Partners, representatives of Legal Aid Service organizations, the academia, strategic partners and the media.

Notable among those present were LASPNET Board Chairperson, Mr. Samuel Nsubuga; Registrars: HW Tom Chemutai (High Court), HW Waninda Fred (Planning and Development) and HW Sam Twakyire(Mbarara). Others were Chief Magistrates, HW James Ereemye Mawanda (Mbale) and HW Timothy Lumunye, the personal assistant to the Principal Judge.

ACTION POINTS

Judiciary

• Embrace people centric policies and engage with public on issues regarding access to justice and perhaps this could be achieved during court open days.
• Continuous implementation of the customized JLOS Anti-Corruption Strategy to curb corruption.
• Mainstream the process of appointing judicial officers in order to guarantee performance-based management.
• Sustain innovations such as the Mediation,Small Claims Procedures and Plea Bargaining as a strategy to reduce on case backlog.
• Judicial Training Institute should consider organizing trainings for judicial officers on issues of torture and human rights.
• Consider increasing operational funds to support protection of witnesses.
• Institutionalize child friendly procedures across all courts and deliberate efforts to train all judicial officers including high court judges on child friendly procedures.
• Judicial officers in successful matters where indigents are represented should order costs of suit in favour of LASPs advocates handling the matter.
• Train and deploy judicial officers to support clients on the new ICT functions developed in the Judiciary
• Roll out continuous trainings of legal officers and magistrates on the laws to ensure that they are up to date.