PHOTO: Associate Justice Yussif Kaba
By Garmah Never Lomo, garmahlomo@gmail.com
MONROVIA, Liberia- An Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of Liberia Yussif Kaba Justice Kaba has said it difficult to access justice where the people are afraid of the justice system; where the system is seeing as alien and inaccessible.
Justice Kaba was speaking on behalf of the Supreme Court over the weekend at the Law Day program held at the Monrovia City Hall.
According to him, it is also difficult to access justice where the system is financially inaccessible; where the people have no knowledge or information of rights; or where the justice system is weak and susceptible to external influence.
The member of the Supreme Court Bench stated that access to justice requires availability of court houses for adjudication the country; and it requires legal awareness; sufficient and qualify justice administrators as well as lawyers, with a more citizen oriented court staff.
Justice Kaba added that it should not be oblivion of the fact that we are a nation just emerging from a bloody civil upheaval.
Barriers such as lack of finance to support the judiciary and other justice actors, infrastructural deficiencies, logistical limitations, increase in criminality especially gender base and arm violence are haunting improvement in our justice system, the Supreme Court of Liberia Associate Justice narrated.
Justice Kaba also acknowledged their international partners for their immense contributions in addressing some of those issues.
For instance, their quick impact project undertaken by their international partners in constructing and reconstructing court houses in several communities throughout the country is indeed laudable.
Recently, they dedicated one of four court houses constructed by funding from the Swedish government through UNDP in rural Liberia noting that these buildings will go a long way in ensuring access to justice to members of those communities.
Justice Kaba however, recognized that there remain daunting challenges in the administration of Justice and one of such challenges is financial inaccessibility and due to resource constraint and donor fatigue, budgetary allotment and international assistance to the judiciary is inadequate to address challenging conditions in the Judiciary.
“As part of my over sight responsibility, I visited a magisterial court in the Forkoleh district recently to investigate a complaint by some citizens against the magistrate. I was baffled to learn that the structure occupied by the court was personally rented by the magistrates.” This situation exists in several magisterial districts.
Narrating further, Justice Kaba disclosed that a lawyer recently told him that he traveled to one of our circuits for hearing of a case and said hearing couldn’t take place due to lack of electricity or fuel to run to run the generator.
“We have systemic problems that hampered access to justice and the confidence of the people in the justice system. Our jury system, the quarterly term system, the lack of appellate court below the Supreme Court and the appellate jurisdiction of the Supreme Court are all factors that need to be reviewed and corrective actions taking to promote access to justice in this country,” Justice Kaba added.
The Supreme Court justice also revealed that the authority of the Judiciary is not be also unaware of reports that mostly criminal defendants are held in long and unnecessary pre-trial detention on account of some magistrates demanding fees for the approval bonds.
“You will recall that Chief Justice speaking on behalf of the Supreme Court on numerous occasions has not only admonished magistrates to refrain from demanding bond fees but has called on the public to come out and challenge such illegal imposition of financial burden on criminal defendants, mostly indigents. We wish to make it categorically clear that it is illegal to induce, solicit or demand in any form whatsoever, a fee or other pecuniary perquisites to perform official duty such as approving a criminal appearance bond,” Justice Kaba explained.
However, the demand for bond fees instills in the citizens and residents by and large fear of the system which is alien and as such denies access to justice, the Supreme Court Associate Justice added.