Editor

Editor

The JLOS Open Day is part of the sector's publicity campaign and an opportunity for the JLOS institutions to interact with the public and showcase the services they provide. Normally, the District Chain Linked Committees of the area hosting the Open Day always take the lead in event organization. The open day is always held in the form of an exhibition which is preceded by a procession around town.

On display are stalls manned by personnel and staff from the various JLOS institutions each complete with information materials such as publications, forms, products, and other displays with the aim of informing the public of the work they do and making the services more accessible and bringing them closer to the people. Institutions also showcase uniforms and other specialised clothing used in their interaction with the public.

The JLOS open day has traditionally been one of the major events preceding the National JLOS Forum. The 1st JLOS Open Day was held in Kampala in 2009. Mbale hosted the 2nd JLOS open day in 2010. The 3rd Justice, Law and Order Sector open day was held in March 2012 in Kampala.

 

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LDC, MAKERERE - The Justice, Law and Order Sector Technical Committee was on Thursday April 5th 2018 presented with the Sector semi annual performance report for the current financial year 2017/18. This is the first sector performance review under the recently rolled out Sector Strategic Development Plan (2017 - 2020).

Mr. Elem Ogwal, Chairperson Technical Committee the Deputy Director office of the Directorate of Public Prosecutions (ODPP) presided over the meeting. In attendance were development partners, members of the JLOS Technical committee, Sector working groups and committees.

 

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The National Access to Justice (JLOS) Forum takes the form of an annual event, taking place in December. The Forum brings together JLOS member institutions and key stakeholders to reflect on JLOS performance for the year ending as well as indicate priorities for the one ahead.

In general, the National JLOS Forum seeks to:

  1. Provide a platform to share information with the invited guests and the public, and to raise issues on access to justice pertinent to all stakeholders.
  2. Provide a platform to benchmark national leaders and the Public.
  3. Enable JLOS to showcase its successes, explain its constraints, and reflect its performance as mirrored against stakeholders' expectations.
  4. Enable JLOS to highlight priorities for the year ahead.

 

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Due to the breadth of the reform programme, working groups are extensions of the Technical Committee that offer in-depth consideration that would otherwise not be possible in the Technical Committee. Working Groups do not have decision-making powers. They report to the Technical Committee for decisions related to resource allocation and management.

The Technical Committee largely operates through the following Working Groups:

  1. Access to Justice Civil is subdivided into two sub-committees (Civil main and Land Justice
  2. Access to Justice Criminal - with one sub-committee (Children and Family justice)
  3. Human Rights and Accountability.
  4. Transitional Justice.
  5. Budget Working group
  6. Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Working Group.

All chairpersons of working groups are selected by the Technical Committee from its membership, while alternate chairpersons of each Working Group are determined annually by members of each WG.

The Advisors in the Secretariat support the working groups in accordance with their respective portfolios.

 

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At the Regional Level, SDP V maintains the Regional Chain-Linked Committees (RCC). Regions under JLOS SDP V will be equivalent to the High Court Circuits.

The RCC is chaired by the Most Senior Resident judge in the Circuit; with the Registrar as Secretary and comprised of the Chairpersons of all DCCs in the circuit and all JLOS institutional representatives with a regional mandate. Regional Chain-linked committees guide the rollout of SDP V in the circuit; backstop and provide direction to DCCs; link DCCs to the national level and vice versa and craft regional solutions to ensure attainment of JLOS SDP V results. RCCs are the conduits for information at the regional level; are a technical resource to DCCs and play an oversight role over SDP V implementation.

 

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At the District level, JLOS is represented by the JLOS District Chain Linked Committee. This role is vital to SDP V implementation.  DCCs are responsible for joint planning, supervising, monitoring and evaluation of performance against set targets.   The DCCs are the frontline of JLOS management, and their effectiveness has the most influence on the effectiveness of the JLOS SIP V primary outputs and impact. DCCs are responsible for rallying all district based JLOS and non-JLOS resources towards the attainment of JLOS targets individually in their respective institutions and as a collective. Detailed roles of the DCCs will be spelt out in the Management Policy. Resources have been allocated to improve the governance; management systems and introduction of DCCs to results-based management systems and to ensure that DCCs have full knowledge of the JLOS SDP, annual and quarterly targets. 

The DCC comprises of the following representatives:

  1. JLOS institutional representatives at the district level
  2. Representatives of the legal profession
  3. District Probation and Social Welfare Officers.
  4. Relevant CSOs, Faith-based organizations and community structures engaged in advancing justice law and order in the district.
  5. The Local government representatives
  6. Nominated members of the public.

The DCC is chaired by the most senior judicial officer in the district and meets monthly. The DCC has two reporting lines. One is to the Advisory Board through the RCC and the other to the JLOS Technical Committee through the JLOS Secretariat. The DCCs report on a quarterly basis to the Technical Committee and monthly to their respective institutions. The Technical Committee reserves one meeting in every quarter to discuss reports of the DCCs. Regional implementation reviews complement sector secretariat feedback to the DCCs.

 

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The Technical Committee comprises technical personnel from Access to Justice institutions at the level of head of departments. There is one representative from each of the A2J institutions, with one alternate designated by each institution. The following have one person each as a member of the Technical Committee in their own right: The Law Council; Administrator General; National Community Service Programme; Amnesty Commission; NGO Bureau; Directorate of Government Analytical Laboratory and Criminal Investigations Directorate of UPF. (Only one member from each institution shall attend at a time). Other representatives include:

  1. The Senior Technical Advisor.
  2. Advisors from the Sector Secretariat.
  3. Chairperson and co-chairperson of JLOS Development Partners Technical Group
  4. JLOS Desk officers at MoFPED, MoPS and OPM

The Technical Committee drives the A2J SDP V strategy document and shall decompose the Leadership Committee vision and the Steering Committee direction into immediate, medium- and long-term strategic objectives. The Committee also plays an oversight role and coordinates strategy. The Technical Committee is responsible for the planning, technical direction and guidance, support, and management of the programme. The Technical Committee facilitates, supervises, and supports the JLOS Secretariat in the implementation of the JLOS SDP V.

The functions of the committee are the following:

  1. Drive the JLOS SDP V Strategy targets.
  2. Monitor sector performance and delivery of results.
  3. Provide strategic direction to the implementation of JLOS SDP V to ensure performance meets the standards by law and by the Leadership Committee
  4. Link the Programme within the institutions, to the JLOS Steering and Leadership structures and to the Working groups and sub-national implementation structures.
  5. Troubleshoot, report to and advise the Steering Committee on SDP V implementation.
  6. Providing the primary link between individual institutions and the sub-programme.