The Honourable Chief Justice of Uganda

Honourable Ministers

The Honourable Principal Judge

My Lords, Justices, and Judges of the Courts of Judicature

The Head of the European Union Delegation in Uganda and Chairperson of the Access to Justice Sub-Programme Development Partners’ Group

Your Excellencies, Heads of Diplomatic Missions to Uganda

Honourable Members of Parliament

Heads of Access to Justice Institutions

Members of the Steering and Technical Committees

Members of the District Chain Linked Committees

Distinguished invited guests in your respective capacities

Ladies and Gentlemen

It is my honour and privilege to welcome you all to this 27^th edition of the Annual Access to Justice, Government of Uganda - Development Partners’ Review.

This year’s review is being held against a backdrop of a challenging year. The aftermath of the COVID 19 pandemic has globally been a challenging phenomenon – socially, economically, and politically. More specifically, the pandemic created unprecedented demands on the access to justice community but also tested the resilience and resolve of our coordination and collaborative model. I’m proud to note that in the face of such challenges, our decades-old coordination structures and mechanisms remained firm and intact.

Our review today is being held under the theme: “Empowering the People, Building Trust, Upholding Rights”. This theme is aligned to the National Vision 2040 that seeks to consolidate the principles of good governance including constitutional democracy, protection of human rights, the rule of law, Government effectiveness and citizen’s participation in development processes and peace and security among others. Indeed, Access to Justice Sub-Programme initiatives have been directed towards these results and the performance report that we will discuss today, will highlight the achievements made so far and the challenges ahead.

The evolving environment we operate is dynamic and there are high expectations from the public from access to justice service providers and duty bearers

The evolving environment we operate is dynamic and there are high expectations from the public from access to justice service providers and duty bearers. Cognizant of the fact that access to justice is a core pillar of our nation’s social economic transformation, we during the reporting year (2021/22) invested effort and resources in deconcentrating JLOS service delivery by reducing the distance people traverse in search of justice services; simplifying and streamlining business processes; improving customer experience and “justice journeys” at JLOS service points; empowering duty bearers in our institutions; tackling case management bottlenecks; and leveraging information and communication technologies (ICTs) to create new service delivery realities of efficiency and effectiveness.

However, challenges still abound. We need to find solutions to the ever-growing prison congestion; staffing gaps in frontline access to justice institutions; aspects of human rights violations; and the scarce financial resources allocated to the sub-programme – just to mention a few.

It's my hope that today, we shall have a meaningful and engaging discussion on the broad spectrum of all these issues that have direct and indirect impact on access to justice service delivery in our country.

I wish to welcome our friends from other programmes to this review. We are partners and comrades in this cause, and we look forward to renewed and strengthened inter-programme partnerships going forward.

I wish to welcome and thank our Development Partners for their unrelenting support over the years. We sincerely appreciate your unwavering commitment to the access to justice sub-programme going back twenty (20) years from the formative years of the Sector-wide approach.

Once again, thank you all for honouring our invitation and I look forward to your active participation in this Review.

##

Speech delivered at the 27th Annual JLOS Review on 6th December 2022 at Speke Resort Munyonyo, Kampala