August 19, 2015
Citizens Bureau for Development and Productivity / Liberia National Police
On the mourning of August 5, 2015 several mediators converged at the Liberia YMCA building in Monrovia for a workshop which was themed “Informal justice interventions in the time of Ebola”. The mediators and other enthusiasts desirous to embrace community justice in their neighborhood participated in discussions at the informal justice conference.
It was an incredible opportunity for our community mediators and enthusiasts to come face to face with practitioners and officials from civil society and the Ministry of Justice. The Citizens Bureau and the Accountability lab in partnership with The Hague institute for Innovating law (HiiL) with additional support from Friends of Liberia provided the platform for community justice mediators training and reflection workshop, aim at discussing a way forward for the development of community justice.
The opening session of the conference was led by Mark Marvey, legal counsel at Heritage Partners Associate, with track record in civil society activism. During his deliberations it was made known that our criminal justice system to include the Police, Court and Correction institutions have undergone several reforms but yet much needs to be done to realize justice for all not few. He stressed that the development of alternative such as Community Justice Initiative for dispute resolution was critical for peaceful co-existence and trust building as the formal system is expensive, slow and complex. Like the formal justice system where it is observed that people sometimes fraud judgment based on fraternity or bribery the informal justice too has its issues, particularly when it comes to gender equality. Besides, it was revealed by the speaker that, formal and informal law complements each other but clash in some instances. That said, harmonization of formal and informal law during the conference was paramount. As participants gathered that:
- It is traditionally thought that ownership of Land is a right to men not women;
- A woman who suffered being raped may be required by traditional justice system to compromise the crime by deciding that the perpetrator should marry the victim.
Given the above, it was viewed by participants that harmonization of informal and formal law was critical to addressing bias or issues of gender equality within the informal system which should concern policy formulators and relevant actors. It was emphatically underscored that community mediators will no doubt be less prone to corrupt influences when it comes to community justice as they are deeply embedded in the community in which they work. The legal counsel concluded by calling on mediators and officials of government and civil society actors, at the meeting to come up with deliverables that will reconcile or harmonize formal and informal law or varying traditions so that the citizens will have faith and trust in the legal system met for them, in terms of quality benefit through effective justice.
Following after, participants led by Community Justice Mediators discussed the challenges mediators encountered while carrying on community mediation. One of the issues that rank chord was, aggrieved party at the time of conflict who opt to go to court or police, simply to spent money to have the other party penalized, not because justice will be served, something which deepen the conflict in ways that could be very disastrous as neighbor lived together without being one another keeper, given harsh feelings after the experienced with the formal system. To this end it is observed that the lack of legislation to render punishment using the informal system remain a challenge.
Sharing experiences from around the world was insightful as the Hiil team, gathered experiences from around the world, as was shown through video, relative to informal justice interventions. The representatives from HiiL was keen to note that the different ways people resolved conflicts should be seen as a learning process which once meet the desired outcome can be adopted for the benefit of people who cannot afford to seek justice through the formal system. We have come to understand that justice needs are great as millions of people worldwide are grieving from injustices, which can be manifested in the increasing demand for training paralegal agents and other used methodologies to ensure robust interventions. In India groups like National Lok Adalat, have played very important role in reducing the case load of the formal systems by effectively finding solutions amongst conflicting parties; in Mali, organizations like Demeso and Wildaf use survey tools to better understand citizens needs and tailored their program accordingly. Kenya known for its technological advancement is far ahead in terms of SMS platform that answers legal questions. In Liberia, Citizens Bureau brings conflicting parties together at the time most suitable to them to resolve their differences outside of the police stations or the courts as most people cannot afford to settle disputes through the formal system. The process saved citizens not only time but also saved money in writ fees, bond fees, lawyer fees and transportation expense. All resolved cases are capture through written case log.
A working lunch on Informal talk about religious co-existence was conducted by Reverend Emmanuel Bowier and Ali Sylla of the Center for Counseling and Restorative Dialogue. Rev. Bowier, a Christian speaking from historicity outlined the development of the Liberian nation. He said that, Liberian leaders at the level of presidents were all professed to be Christian but not Liberia as a state. The discussion of independence was held in a church but never was it enshrined in our constitution that Liberia was a Christian nation. Upon the arrival of the settlers, there were people on the ground practicing Islam and other form of religion; notwithstanding, it was the settlers who came with the idea of an independent Liberian Nation. Sylla, a Muslim, who worked with the Ministry of justice, shared discussions with the audience involving young people he previously interacted with as it concerns their stance to turn Liberia into a Christian state. The played video featured some Liberians expressing anger should the country be turned into a Christian nation, given current debate to Christianize Liberia through a referendum. This aspect of the workshop provided historical and legal information to promote religious tolerance amongst Liberians.
How to make community justice sustainable was the final session of the day. During which time mediators spoke about building relationship through moral behavior to win people’s confidence and trust in the mediation process; so that the tools created are continuously utilized for the good of the community and Liberia at large. Another was, budgetary appropriations be allotted from state coffers to sustain Community Justice Initiative, and through legislation that empowered Community Justice Teams to deal effectively with certain crimes by combining visible hard work with the prospect that offenders of certain crimes sentenced by the court as an alternative to detention to acquired skills that are crucial to their livelihood and sustainability. By so doing, not only will gross wrong doing in the community be punished, but offenders will learn to work and earn money legitimately, while at the same time reducing overcrowdings in prison, as well as, promoting speedy trial of major cases on the court dockets. It was also mentioned that for sustainability of a high impact, low cost community mediation strategies, mediators should be recruited from within operating communities.
Best,
John Kamma
Executive Director
