Programme director
Honourable Justices and Members of the Magistracy
Members of the media
Ladies and gentlemen
It is an honour to announce that the Chief Justice of South Africa, Justice Sandile Ngcobo, together with the Heads of Courts, will host a conference on Access to Justice from the 8 to 10 July 2011 here at the Hilton Hotel.
The theme of the conference is “Towards delivering accessible and quality justice for all”. It will examine access to justice in our country, in particular, review and reflect on the challenges facing the people of South Africa as they seek justice in our courts and to reflect on how to address these challenges.
While significant progress has been made since 1994 to make our justice system effective and accessible, there are still a number of challenges.
The Chief Justice upon his appointment in October 2009 has therefore consulted widely to determine the nature and extent of the problems experienced by, in particular the judiciary, the organised legal profession, private practitioners, non-governmental organisations and the members of the public.
The key problems affecting our justice system include delays in the system, its accessibility, inadequate court facilities, including court rooms and library facilities. In addition, our justice system has not taken full advantage of the developments in information technology in order to improve the efficiency of our courts.
In many ways our courts are not functioning as efficiently and effectively as we would wish and this has an adverse impact on the delivery of justice, particularly in respect of the poor and vulnerable in our society.
Unless urgent attention is given to these issues, the confidence in the justice system may very well be undermined. The primary challenge facing the judiciary is to re-examine the fundamentals of the justice system.
This conference therefore is not intended to address the specifics and the details of our justice system, but to review fundamentals.
Whilst the courts are primarily responsible for the delivery of justice, the Constitution requires other branches of government, through legislative and other measures, to assist and protect the courts to ensure their independence, impartiality, dignity, accessibility and effectiveness. We hope that by their presence at the conference and having listened to the challenges, the Executive and the Legislature will work with the Judiciary in ensuring the accessibility and efficiency of the courts as required by the Constitution.
This is therefore a historic conference where the three arms of government, the Judiciary, the Executive and the Legislature, are coming together to reflect on the state of our justice system consistent with their shared responsibility to give effect to the Constitution.
The reason for the decision not to limit this conference to the judiciary, but also to invite civic organisations and members of the public to participate in it, is to enlist their support to work with us towards improving the accessibility and efficiency of our courts.
By calling this conference we are, in a way, acknowledging that our justice system is not working as it should be and we want to say that we are working towards fixing it. But the Judiciary cannot undertake this task alone. That is why it is enlisting the support of the other branches of government, other stakeholders and the public.
The main purpose of this conference therefore is to reflect on how the accessibility and effectiveness of the courts can be enhanced. To this extent, the Chief Justice and the Heads of Courts are bringing together, for the first time, the three arms of government on one platform with over 300 local and international legal experts and policymakers, including a number of Chief Justices, judges, lawyers and court administrators to deliberate on these issues.
The conference will be opened by the Chief Justice, who will welcome all present and make opening remarks. This will be followed by opening remarks by the Speaker of the National Assembly and the Chairperson of the National Council of Provinces. The President of the Republic of South Africa will deliver the key-note address. He will be introduced by the Honourable Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development, Mr JT Radebe, who will later give his perspective on access to justice.
National and international speakers will include Judge Arthur Chaskalson, former Chief Justice of the Republic of South Africa; Judge Georgina Wood, Chief Justice of Ghana; Judge David Campbell, Judge of the US Federal District Court for the District of Arizona; Judge Steven Rares, Justice of the Federal Court of Australia; Judge Seiu Kin Lee, Judge of the Supreme Court of Singapore; Judge Margaret H Marshall, Former Chief Justice, Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court; and Judge Maruping Dibotelo, Chief Justice of Botswana; to name but a few of the many esteemed speakers.
Some of the issues that will be examined at the conference include:
- Judicial independence and sustaining the confidence of the public in the judiciary
- Enhancing court efficiency, including judicial case management and performance measurement
- The use of information technology to enhance the efficiency of courts
- Alternative dispute resolution mechanisms, including court based mediation and restorative justice
- Court administration
- The role of the media in making justice accessible
- Judicial education.
The ultimate objective of this conference is to review and reflect on the fundamental challenges facing our justice system and to reflect on how to address those challenges. This is therefore a fundamental review of our justice system which will include the development of a basic philosophy that should underlie our justice system in order to make it accessible and effective.
The conference will therefore develop the agenda for the future changes to our justice system. To this extent, the Case Flow Management Committee of the Heads of Courts, which has been responsible for putting together this conference, will review the proceedings of the conference and make recommendations to the Heads of Courts on how to address the challenges facing our justice system. The Case Flow Management Committee will also be responsible for the monitoring of the implementation of the recommendations and report back to the Heads of Court.
We wish to thank members of the media for attending today and we invite you to the conference.
Enquiries:
Judge President Dunstan Mlambo
Cell: 082 600 4302
Source: Department of Justice and Constitutional Development
