SPEECH BY HIS EXCELLENCY DR. JAKAYA MRISHO KIKWETE, THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED REPUBLIC OF TANZANIA, AT THE OPENING OF THE INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF WOMEN JUDGES CONFERENCE, ARUSHA TANZANIA

5TH MAY 2014


Hon. Mohamed Othman Chande, Chief Justice of the United Republic of Tanzania,

Hon. MadameAloma Mariam Mukhtar, Chief Justice of the Federal Republic of Nigeria,

Hon. Dr. Asha-Rose Migiro, Minister for Constitutional and Legal Affairs;


Hon. Eusebia Munuo, President of the International Association of Women Judges, (IAWJ);

Hon. Engera Kileo, Chairperson of Tanzania Women Judges Association,

Hon. Presidents of various Courts and Tribunals Present

Hon.Judges and Magistrates;

Madame Joan Winship, Executive Director of International Association of Women Judges (IAWJ),


Members of the Diplomatic Corp;

Distinguished Guests,

Ladies and Gentlemen;

I thank your Lordship Mr. Chief Justice Mohamed Chande Othman and Madam Justice Eusebia Munuo for inviting me to join you at this auspicious occasion of gracing the 9th Biannual Conference of International Association of Women Judges. I thank the organizers for affording my dear country, Tanzania the rare
opportunity of hosting this all important biennial conference for the first time. On a personal note, I sincerely appreciate the honour and privilege of being associated with the two conferences.


Allow me at the outset, to welcome to Tanzania, all distinguished delegates who have travelled from afar. I thank you for coming, you have done us proud. As I wish you successful deliberations, I implore you to visit some of the tourist sites near Arusha.As you know this is the hub of Tanzania northern tourist circuit which is home to Mount Kilimanjaro and world renowned sanctuaries like the Serengeti National Park and the Ngorongoro Crater which is the cradle of humanity. The spice Islands of Zanzibar, the ultimate paradise on the Indian Ocean is only half an hour away by plane.

I am sure you will enjoy the experience of visiting these leisure places and be enticed to come back for a longer safari and holiday experience.

Distinguished Delegates;
Ladies and Gentlemen;
This distinguished gathering of women legal luminaries from all over the world presents a perfect occasion to reflect upon important issues relating to administration of justice. I understand that, this gathering of experts from across the globe blends knowledge and experience, which is a perfect recipe for an enriched thinking and discussion. I trust that the coming five days of this Conference will generate useful discussions and ideas for the improvement of our respective legal sectors and systems, as well as the profession at large.

The Conference Topic

Distinguished Delegates;
Ladies and Gentlemen;
I have been informed that this conference has chosen to deliberate on a theme “Justice for All”. This is laudable, for, a gathering of Women Judges would definitely be concerned with matters relating to human equality in terms of equal access to justice than anybody else.This is for obvious reasons.The current social dispensation cries very loud for enhanced equality in our societies and the dispensation of justice is one such area that calls for that.It is unfortunate that, in this 21st century, we are still grappling with matters that are a hindrance to equality in accessing justice.

I am constrained to note that my country, with more than 50 years ofindependence is also still grappling with such matters.Let us together reflect on these issues, the efforts we have made in addressing them and the way forward.We shall definitely find that they resemble in most jurisdictions, where the majority of the delegates present here come from.

Distinguished Delegates,
Ladies and Gentlemen;
A discussion of the theme “Equal Access to Justice” will require to address issues like adequacy of laws, rules and regulations that govern administration of justice, sufficiency of manpower, infrastructure and resources to dispense justice as well as ethics and attitude of the legal staff as well as the society towards justice. Unfortunately, most of our societies have found themselves in situations which all the above matters are serious challenges for their resolve to ensure equal access to justice. To cap it all, poverty is the biggest hindrance to any effort to address the shortcomings that come across the efforts to unlock these problems.

Inadequacy of Laws

Ladies and Gentlemen;
When it comes to laws, rules and regulations, except for the developed world and countries which in one way or the other laws are home grown, which are few, the majority of our countries which emerged from colonialism have found ourselves inheriting foreign laws, rules and regulations that had to be administered in dispensing justice. Unfortunately, these laws alien as they are, are incomprehensible to the majority of the people. To make matters worse, the vexing procedural aspect born out of them has resulted in making the process of dispensing justice inordinately very slow, hence not effective to the desired standards. This has made most of our legal regimes to be seen as methods of coercing our respective societies rather than a desired tool of regulating our good lives.

To the poor, these laws are perceived as expensive tools best used by the affluent in society to oppress them, and to expropriate their properties, freedom and dignity. Unfortunately, even our customary laws which are homegrown came to be interpreted in the same way. Concerted efforts are, therefore, required to ensure that our legal system is reformed enough in order to guarantee equal access to justice. 

Insufficiency Infrastructure, Manpower and Resources

Distinguished Delegates;
Ladies and Gentlemen;
To add to the inadequacy of laws, rules and regulations, there is an inherent problem of insufficiency of infrastructure, manpower and resources. Most jurisdictions emerged from colonialism with a despicable state of poverty. Hence in scaling up priorities, economic development was ruled rather higher than anything else. Second to it ranked the provision of social amenities particularly health and education. Administration of justice trailed far behind.

For quite a while the legal sector was not accorded the requisite investment.The transition from colonialism was very slow in this regard.It is not gainsaying therefore that, our respective legal machineries are characteristic of shortage in infrastructure in terms of buildings equipment, manpower and resources.Thanks to the awakening realization which came to catch up a few decades later that, economic development has a lot to do with justice in our societies.Two good examples can be made out.First, societal stability has a close relationship with the capacity to punish criminals, as this creates a stable society for a vibrant economic growth.Second, the realization that capacity to enforce contracts is necessary in order to provide a regulated and orderly interpersonal economic relationship and trust, which provide a solid basis for economic growth.

Adequate infrastructure alone without competent manpower may not bring about the desired results.Investment in manpower of all cadres in the administration of justice is critical for ensuring quality justice.I am told, the quality of justice is reflected first in professionalism in terms of excellent knowledge of the law by all players;Judges, Magistrates and other Judicial Staff on the one hand and a vibrant bar; Attorneys, Prosecutors and Advocates.Second is discipline and a sense of responsibility. Without these attributes the very root of professionalism will be defeated.

Efforts to Unlock the Shortfalls

Distinguished Delegates;
Ladies and Gentlemen;
The realization of the need to unlock bottlenecks that has befallen the legal sector, made my country, and many of our jurisdictions embark on Legal Reform Programmes aimed at ensuring efficiency in dispensation of justice taking into account the ability to access justice by the majority of the citizens from all walks in life.Through a number of programmes, country’s have embarked on reforms of the legal sector for the purpose of making our justice system accessible by the majority of the people.In my country for example, thanks to the formidable work by our old Jurist Judge Bomani and his team who between 1993 and 1996 produced the legal sector report, which formed the basis for the more ambitious legal reform strategy, that addresses among other things, challenges relating to access to justice.

Through the Law Reform Commission and BEST Project among others, a number of our legislation have been reviewed with a view to putting in place a speedy and effective civil justice system.The Commercial Court which specializes in resolution of commercial disputes has been established and has shown good progress in resolution of commercial disputes. The Labour Court has also been reformed in line with a revamped Labour Legislation.We now have a more effective labour disputes resolution system, compared to the hitherto semi executive system which was ineffective.The Land Courts and tribunals which have been established across the country from the village level to the High Court provide better access to litigants than was the case before they were established.

The criminal justice system has gone through an evolution of reform in line with the enhancement of Human Rights.I must admit though, that a lot more remains to be done in order to ensure effective penal, corrective and rehabilitative services are rendered to the society.It is my wish that forum like this one tackles difficult issues of this nature and provides practical solutions.

Institutional Rehabilitation

Ladies and Gentlemen;
Access to justice requires institutional rehabilitation of our justice system in order to instill efficiency. Our resolve to bring justice close to our people entails assurance that justice services are made available as close to the people as possible. We have resolved to build High Court Centres in every region, establish Courts of Resident Magistrates in every district and we have embarked on a momentous resolve to assign graduate lawyers at Primary Courts level. So far we have employed 300 graduate lawyers to serve in Primary Courts. The end result of this will be to ensure that eventually quality justice is accessed right from the Primary Court level to the highest level. One endeavor we have set to accomplish while in office is the building of High Court buildings in every region.We have managed to built High Court buildings in 17 regions, this year we have committed funds to build four High Courts and the remaining four will be built in the next financial year.

The institutional rehabilitation of our justice system includes reshaping of our administrative structures of the judiciary by adding up expertise in the management of the judiciary. In so doing, a legal as well as administrative framework of deploying a court administrator in the judiciary has been completed. This has added a lot of improvement, by unlocking the judicial staff and making them available for Judicial work, while Court administrators have been left to deal with administrative matters.

To ensure budgetary independence of the judiciary, the establishment of the Judiciary Fund has proved extremely useful.Now the judiciary has been more independent in the management of their finances.

Judiciary Manpower

Distinguished Participants;
Whatever investment in the justice system will only yield the desired success with deployment of adequate competent manpower.We have increased the establishment of Judges in the High Court and Court of Appeal.When we came into office in 2005 there were 45 Judges, out of whom, women were 10.Currently we have 78 Judges and 30 of them are women.I am one of those leaders who have a strong conviction in gender balance if not equality.Hence during our tenure in office we have been able to appoint the highest number of the Women Judges both of the Court of Appeal and the High Court.We have also directed those who employ judicial staff in the Lower Courts to do the same. I believe, with a good number of women judges in our high judicial offices our justice system is in good hands.Fortunately, they have not let me down.I am aware that a good number of our Regional and Zonal Registries which are manned by women judges are exemplary demonstration of dedication, hard work and output.I commend them all for the work very well done.

Legal Representation

Distinguished Delegates,
Ladies and Gentlemen;
Effective access to justice has a lot to do with legal representation.In our case, until very recently the number of advocates never exceeded a thousand.Thanks to the efforts and initiatives of the present leadership in the Judiciary, which has taken advantage of the expanded training of the legal professionals to increase enrollment of new advocates from 1,060 Advocates in 2006 to 4,184 advocates in 2013, an increase of 3,124.Still even with this number, the ratio of an advocate to the population remains to be very low.The demands for legal services in our society is very high.

Many people are denied of their rights simply because of lack of legal representation, which invariably is perceived as an expensive luxury for the affluent in the society.Pro-bono schemes which are meant to assist the disadvantaged groups in society are mostly confined in urban areas leaving the majority in the rural areas unable to access such services.Unfortunately, the most vulnerable are the silent majority in the rural areas.

I am told even the legal practice in the urban areas require to be further defined in terms of specialization and organization.Until such time when retraining and organization in terms of specialization will be achieved, access to specialized justice system will remain an expensive affair for the few.Unless efforts are made to ensure that provision of legal services pro-bono to the disadvantaged majority, access to justice by all may not be achieved.

We in government have realized that these are challenges.The decision to staff courts of all ladders with graduate magistrates is meant to ensure that legal representation becomes possible in all Courts.We want to overcome the present situation which do not allow legal representation in primary courts because they are manned by non graduate judicial staff, yet they attend to the majority of our citizenry in a manner that does not accord effective access to justice.

Multisectoral Approval to Justice Dispensation

Distinguished Delegates;
Ladies and Gentlemen;
The reforms of our Justice System will not bear the desired results without involving the whole legal sector.The Criminal Justice System for example, requires that the whole system to be made effective to address not only new challenges and emerging crimes but also is compliant to human rights standards.The hounds of justice, prosecutors and prisons must be brought to the chain in order to make the system effective and accountable.This way deterrence to crime will be achieved.We are doing everything within our disposal to achieve that.There are conspicuous achievements on this score.
The modernization of Civil Justice System entails review of a number of legislation in order to weed out archaic rules and procedures that impede access to justice.The unwanted laws which are discriminatory to women and children have to be corrected and work for the accomplishment of this task is underway.It is our desire to see that our legal system is an effective and perfect tool for making all our citizen access justice notwithstanding their differences on their status in life.

Conclusion

Distinguished Participants;
Accessing justice by every person is a precious right that has to be embodied in every sphere of life.This endeavor has to progress in tandem with growth in the economic as well as social spheres.We do no longer wish to see our countries ranked down in parameters like cost of doing business indices, simply because our justice systems are dysfunctional that they cannot enforce Contracts.We do not wish to see our societies are so segmented that the rich can buy their way and the poor are driven for a ride.We need to see that every person who happen to be in this universe has guaranteed rights without regard to the status in life he or she may happen to live.We want to see that our women are respected and are held to the highest esteem they deserve.We need to groom our children to become justice minded in a society that respects justice.

Ladies and Gentlemen;
This conference is best placed to address all the overarching issues in respect of inclusion of all persons in society in addressing challenges on equal access to justice.I wish you all the best in the days you will stay here and that you spend your good time to participate in the Conference.You will, as I said earlier, find that Arusha is a very pleasant place where you can do both work and relaxation.Make use of this unique opportunity.I know you need it.

Madam President,
Distinguished Delegates,
Ladies and Gentlemen;
It is now my singular honour and pleasure to declare that this 9th Biennial of Conference International Association of Women Judges is officially opened.I wish you fruitful deliberations.

I thank you for your kind attention!
Asanteni sana.

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