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.
