Women lawyers train Judicial Service staff

A training programme for staff of the Public Complaints and Communication units of the Judicial Service of Ghana has been organised in Accra.

The training was aimed at educating the staff of the service on how to improve on client relations and services.

Organised by the Africa Women Lawyers Association (AWLA) with support from Star Ghana, the training was also aimed at training the staff of the Judicial Service on how to improve investigations into complaints and to give feedback to clients.

A representative of the Chief Justice Mrs Georgina Theodora Woode, Justice Mrs Georgina Mensah-Datsa,  who opened the programme,  encouraged the staff of the Unit  to improve on their work while calling on the public to also ensure that they had evidence to back their complaints.

According to her, it was only when they had evidence that the judiciary could also act on their complaints.

Court Users Committee

To ensure that people have access to justice in the country, AWLA, as part of its access to justice programme, has helped to set up Court Users Committee (CUC) in 15 courts across the 10 regions.

The Executive Director of AWLA, Ms Edna Kuma,  who opened the training programme said the judicial processes were cumbersome and most poor people did not have access to the formal channels for justice services. 

According to her,  the main principle of access to justice was that the legal system should be structured and administered in such a manner that it provided the citizenry with affordable and timely access to appropriate institutions and procedures through which they could claim and protect their rights.

Challenges to Justice

She said access to the judicial system was mostly barred by long and tiring legal processes at the courts, ignorance of the law and the judicial system, the usually long distance one has to travel to access the services of a court, ignorance about the court system, poverty and low level of income, adjournment of cases, perceived acts of impropriety at the courts, fear of the judicial system due to low level of education/ poverty, fear born out of intimidation and provocation from court officials, among others.

Also in many Ghanaian cultures, she said, women and children were generally afraid to speak in public, hence they may not be able to go to court or the traditional authorities to state their case.

 According to her, these cumbersome processess  led to people having limited or no knowledge about legal rights and entitlements,  legal and social responsibilities leading to the infringement of the rights of others and the denial of entitlements to those that deserve and have a right to them.

The CUC, Ms Kuma expanded, was an effort to get the public to participate in achieving the vision of the Judiciary and the Judicial Service.

The concept of Court User Committees, she said, was a standard feature of many court systems throughout the world. 

The committee, she said, was an essential means of engaging the Judicial Service and the courts. 

Writer's email: rebecca.quaicoe-duho@graphic.com.gh