Commonwealth training aims to improve access to justice in Malawi

Judges in Malawi have undergone training in court administration in a bid to improve access to justice for Malawi’s people.

A Commonwealth Secretariat funded workshop held earlier this month exposed judicial officers to modern management skills to help them with the day to day running of the courts and to strengthen the capacity of High Court Registries - the administrative units of the courts.

Legal advisor in the Secretariat’s Justice Section, Mark Guthrie, said: “The training was about upholding the rights of citizens of Malawi to access justice by making it easier for them to go to court and for their cases to be heard.

“It was ultimately about promoting and protecting the human right to access justice by making the court system more accessible.”

At the request of the Malawian judiciary, in June 2009 the Secretariat’s Legal and Constitutional Affairs Division sponsored the Hon Justice Lovemore Chikopa, Judge-in-Charge of the Registry of the High Court in Mzuzu, Malawi - to attend a course in judicial administration at Royal Institute of Public Administration (RIPA) International in London.

In November 2009 it also sponsored Assistant Registrar Joseph Chigona of the Malawi Judiciary to attend a judicial administration workshop organised by the Government of Cyprus and the Secretariat in Nicosia, Cyprus.

Both these judicial officers then conveyed their new found knowledge to Judges-in-Charge, Registrars and Registry Supervisors at the training workshop in Mangochi on Lake Malawi, Malawi, earlier this month.

The workshop addressed the importance of case management (including listing cases, monitoring their progress and screening them for their merits), customer care, records management, court inspections, automating court processes, court reform and greater training for court clerks.

Participants also recommended that the Supreme Court of Appeal go on circuit throughout Malawi to increase its accessibility.

Mr Guthrie said: “The judges committed themselves to applying the skills and knowledge which they acquired in the training in order to strengthen Malawian citizens’ right to access to justice. In the coming months we will be following with interest how they have implemented change.”

The materials used during the training will also be published for wider dissemination amongst all judges in Malawi.

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