Ministers and senior officers from Commonwealth Caribbean have endorsed a brand new set of measures, designed to enhance folks’s entry to justice.
The measures had been the results of four-day deliberations amongst Commonwealth legislation ministers at their biennial assembly in Zanzibar, Tanzania, final week. They had been additionally guided by enter from various stakeholders, together with folks with disabilities, civil society representatives and main innovators within the authorized sector.
Beneath these measures, ministers resolved to ramp up efforts to take away limitations to entry to justice and handle the authorized wants of all residents.
Key provisions embrace improved entry to justice for folks with disabilities, a mannequin legislation on digital belongings, a brand new motion plan to guard girls from on-line violence and a proposal to get rid of gender-discriminatory laws.
Ministers additionally welcomed an array of latest Commonwealth authorized assets, together with a mediation information, a small claims court docket app for dispute decision and a database for cooperation on prison issues.
Moreover, they adopted the Commonwealth tips on the therapy of digital proof in prison proceedings, designed to supply member nations a framework to craft nationwide laws.
To help the implementation, ministers requested the Commonwealth Legislation Ministers Motion Group to report progress on the subsequent assembly.
The package deal summarises the result assertion issued by ministers, representing one-third of humanity, on the finish of their assembly on 8 February 2024.
Talking after the assembly, the Commonwealth Secretary-Common, The Rt Hon Patricia Scotland KC, mentioned the measures had been “completely vital” as a result of two-thirds of the world’s inhabitants lack significant entry to justice.
She continued: “Our discussions have been purposeful, our choices have been significant, and our highly effective new consensus permits us to take the subsequent big steps ahead in the direction of equal entry to justice, in modernised authorized programs, throughout our fantastic Commonwealth.
“We go away Zanzibar with a strong mandate which is able to permit us to take the subsequent decisive steps to make sure justice for all is the lived expertise of each one of many 2.5 billion folks residing in our Commonwealth.”
Of their assertion, ministers recognised the Secretariat’s tech-driven justice options and its work on synthetic intelligence as vital interventions in bettering entry to authorized info and remodeling justice supply in at present’s advanced world.
The Secretariat additionally offered a number of papers within the subject of power and extractives, together with a carbon tax mannequin legislation and an oil and fuel decommissioning information, which leverage laws in efforts to sort out local weather change and ship a simply transition.
Hosted by the United Republic of Tanzania from 4 to eight March 2024, the assembly was chaired by Hon Ambassador Dr Pindi H. Chana, the nation’s Minister of Constitutional and Authorized Affairs, who recommended the substantive outcomes.
Officiating the closing ceremony on March 8, Hussein Mwinyi, President of Zanzibar, mentioned: “I’m happy to notice that the assembly has recorded quite a lot of achievements, which problem us to undertake reforms in an effort to make sure that justice is accessible to all.
“I’m conscious of efforts that the Commonwealth nations have taken to form its agenda on the rule of legislation and entry to justice. It’s excessive time that you just made the identical efforts on entry to justice by digitisation.”
The outcomes from the assembly will form the agenda for the upcoming Commonwealth Heads of Authorities Assembly (CHOGM) in Samoa later this 12 months.
The following assembly will probably be hosted by the Authorities of Fiji in February 2026.
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