Africa-Press – Botswana. The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) has succeeded in its efforts to make Botswana a just and law-abiding nation with an accessible and fair justice system.
The minister of Justice, Mr Machana Shamukuni told the media on Tuesday that among such endeavours were a strategy to reinforce public confidence in the justice system and improving strategic focus on justice matters.
“The strategy also seeks to ensure that we build a justice system which is accessible and responds to the needs of the general public,” he said.
Mr Shamukuni said to achieve that, the ministry would strive to develop and review relevant legislations, including extradition treaties and mutual legal assistance treaties with strategic countries as well as digitising the justice services.He said some acts such as the Magistrates’ Courts Act to help reduce backlog at the high court and the Legal Practitioners Act to improve professional standards and integrity had already passed through parliament for amendment, in an effort to enable accessibility and fair justice system for all.
He said the ministry had also made progress in preparation of bills for presentation to parliament, such as the Insolvency Bill of 2022 meant to harmonise and align with best international practice,” he said.
Mr Shamukuni also commend ed the ministry’s development partners among them, the UNDP, UNHCR and the EU for the support they continued to provide.
He said Botswana stood out in submitting and normalising all reports to the UN bodies, citing the recent fourth cycle Universal Periodic Review (UPR), which the country underwent at the beginning of this month.
Some of the achievements he said, included the ratification of the Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities and establishing the National Human Right Coordinating Committee.
Mr Shamukuni promised that the ministry would focus on commitments such as the delivery of a commercial court, improved project implementation, addressing case backlogs, digitisation and outreach on the justice services.
He said that the ministry would continue to come up with strategies, programmes and policy initiatives to provide equal access and efficient justice for all.
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