Mozambique: Call for speedy and quality justice

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Mozambique: Call for speedy and quality justice

1:02 CAT | 08 Dec 2020

Photo: Noticias

The chairperson of Mozambique’s Administrative Tribunal, Lucia do Amaral, on Monday urged the entire system of the administration of justice to reflect on the constraints which make speedy and good quality justice impossible in Mozambique.

She was speaking in Maputo at the opening of a meeting of the Judicial Council of Administrative, Customs and Fiscal Courts, held under the motto “For a speedy and quality justice system at the service of citizens”.

Amaral warned that the slow pace at which the wheels of justice turn in Mozambique “often results in a true denial of justice”.

She called for an urgent reflection on this problem, because the procedural lethargy of the system is leading to serious losses, not only for the most vulnerable strata of the population, but also for businesses, and for society at large.

“The pairing of speed and quality implies the need for justice to be provided within a reasonable time, but while satisfying the litigants in question, and it is not always possible to reconcile them”, Amaral said.

Among the factors that slowed cases down, Amaral pointed to the shortage of judges and other legal personnel, and the exponential increase in the burden of work in the courts, which she attributed to “greater legal awareness of citizens”.

The Mayor of Maputo, Eneas Comiche, told the meeting he was also concerned about reconciling speed with the security of legal solutions. But he thought all efforts should be made to ensure “a more modern, speedier, more fluid, more accessible and better quality justice system”.

Access to good quality and speedy justice “is a right inherent to the dignity of the human person, and it is at the basis of fundamental rights”, said Comiche. “Court decisions affect each of us. They affect the business environment and the competitiveness of the economy. So the justice system as a factor in economic development, and in the promotion of citizenship, deserves our full attention”.

Source: AIM