Re-opening of Supreme Court |12 January 2016

‘Ensuring access to justice for all’

‘Access to justice for all’ is the theme for this year’s ceremonial opening of the Supreme Court of Seychelles which took place yesterday.

Speaking at the Palais de Justice on Ile du Port following a religious service at the St Paul’s Cathedral, Chief Justice Mathilda Twomey said this theme is primarily a call to action not for the Judiciary only but also an appeal to everyone in Seychelles…to ensure that the legal system provides fair and equal treatment to all persons who access it.

“It is about making sure that all persons are able to obtain a just and timely remedy for a violation of their rights. Access to justice is the constitutional right of every citizen and access to justice applies equally to constitutional, criminal and civil law matters,” CJ Twomey said.

In a hard-hitting speech, CJ Twomey tackled various issues and positioned herself as “the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court and not as somebody being influenced by any political, social or religious group”.

She said justice should be the same, in substance and availability to all persons who enter the courtrooms and tribunals, regardless of their economic status. “They should enjoy an adequate level of professional legal assistance. They should have confidence in a completely impartial judicial decision-making process regardless of their political persuasion,” she said.

She noted that in the past years the legal profession has been criticised for not providing justice for all – criticisms that ranged from excessive delays in resolving cases, political and other organised influence, disparate treatment of similar cases, judicial and legal professional misconduct, and difficulty in obtaining professional and ethical legal assistance.

“While some of these criticisms have been entirely unfounded, however, some has been near the mark,” she averred.

She spoke about her plans to reduce the backlog of cases further and congratulated other institutions such as the Magistrates Courts and the Criminal Division of the Supreme Court on reducing their backlog significantly and on having cleared all cases prior to 2007.

She also congratulated the Commercial Court for keeping to its schedule when dealing with cases, saying “we will continue to focus on achieving timely justice in 2016”.

With regard to allegations of political or personal influence in the judiciary, CJ Twomey said she is confident that each and every judicial decision-maker weighs the law from a neutral and unbiased point of view.

“However, we need to appreciate these criticisms and ensure that we do not become complacent in guarding against any political influence on our work,” she said.

Lamenting the fact that the country’s Legal Aid Act is out of date and that very few lawyers are willing to take Legal Aid cases, which has resulted in poorest citizens being prevented from bringing their cases to court, CJ Twomey said in the future all legal practitioners will be required to take Legal Aid cases as a requirement of their Legal Practitioners’ licence.

“I hope that you embrace this opportunity to give back to the community your pro bono skills,” she said.

She however applauded the few lawyers who carry the majority of the Legal Aid cases.

“You are very much the unsung heroes of our legal system,” she said.

Speaking about plans that she will be focusing on during this year, CJ Twomey said she would like to see a judiciary that is independent, transparent, efficient and dignified.

“I want to work in a place where people are proud of the quality of the work that they do, and a place that promotes the ability of individuals to access timely justice,” she said.

A primary focus for her is to improve the speed with which cases are completed. “I think it is completely unreasonable for cases to run over many years, until the parties have passed away and their heirs are left trying to claim justice for injuries caused years before,” she said.

She said the court needs to establish and institute policies which are applied uniformly across the judiciary – the Tribunals, Magistrates Courts, Supreme Court and Court of Appeal.

“And not only do these policies need to be written and implemented, but they also have to be adopted and followed,” she stressed.

She noted that although there are delay-reducing measures and internal protocols for judgments, these are not implemented across the board.

“I am particularly disappointed with some civil matters filed more than a decade ago which have not yet been completed. Let this be the last year that I have to mention this matter. The Protocol issued to the Judiciary will be strictly enforced – constitutional cases are to be completed within six months of their filing, criminal cases one year and civil cases two years. Until they are 100% applied, the protocols and policies cannot be successful. We will focus on implementing new policies where they are required, and better encouraging adherence where existing protocols are not being applied,” CJ Twomey said.

The Chief Justice also spoke of the need “to encourage personnel to stay in their posts” by introducing “well designed incentive packages and planned human resource management”.

She also urged more Seychellois-resident staff to join the judiciary, especially in judicial positions “so that we have fewer continuity problems when expatriate staff leave”.

Other issues the Chief Justice spoke about included professionalism, training and education.

“I hope to revive and revamp the Judicial College to ensure that we are able to provide the judiciary with high quality legal education, and also to work more closely with UniSey and the Bar to provide ongoing legal education for legal practitioners,” she said.

On the subject of social media and the media CJ Twomey said she has been a proponent of giving the public access to the judiciary, especially via email and social media, with the sole purpose of raising public awareness of due process. “Sadly, I have noted that some individuals, including lawyer-politicians do not extend their professionalism into these communication channels. Where one maintains a personal presence in such communication channels one is professionally bound to refrain from inciting in one way or another the retelling of untruths about the judicial process, the sowing of hatred against individuals, and the fostering of disrespect and abuse of fellow professionals, especially when correct legal outcomes differ from personal desire in individual cases,” CJ Twomey noted.

Noting that she has personally been the subject of political diatribe, violent threats and personal abuse, CJ Twomey said it is a cowardly act to make such attacks “knowing full well that the object of such attacks is unable to comment on them”.

She further stressed that the Judiciary “will not be swayed, hijacked, threatened or disrespected by anyone – not by politicians in government, not by those in opposition, not by power lobbies and not by organisations or associations religious, social or otherwise”. 

“The Judiciary does not engage in politics. Know that it is guided by the rule of law and nothing else,” said the CJ.

CJ Twomey concluded her remarks by praising and thanking “those leaders and responsible citizens who have had the courage to remind our countrymen that the courts of Seychelles and judicial officers are to be respected. I encourage you in the important work of educating the citizens of this country as to what the rule of law really means in a democracy”.

Caption:

Members of the judiciary in a family photo

CJ Twomey delivering her address