The Judiciary has rallied members of the public to show up in big numbers for the National Court Open Day, the first of its kind in the history of the Judiciary at the Kololo Independence Grounds on Monday next week.

Addressing the media on the importance of the event at the High Court in Kampala on Thursday (April 11, 2024), James Ereemye Mawanda, the Judiciary’s public relations officer explained that the day has been designed for the Judiciary to sensitise members of the public on the court processes and to also receive feedback from them as consumers of the Judiciary services.

“We call upon all members of the public who have complaints or are interested in knowing the operations of the Judiciary to show up in big numbers on Monday at Kololo Independence Grounds to voice your concerns. This is not a day for the Judiciary but for the members of the public to air your views. We want to use your views to improve the image of the Judiciary,” Mawanda said.

Mawanda said legal materials such as brochures explaining the court process will also be distributed to the participants for reference.

“Don’t come with offensive materials because we want a peaceful and interactive day,” he said.

Court open days are interactive engagements that have been organised by the Judiciary at a given court for the public to give feedback and also to freely interface with the Judiciary and other stakeholders in the justice chain as a way of demystifying the processes and services offered by the Judiciary.  

Court open days also serve as a mechanism for fighting corruption within the Judiciary as members of the public are given an opportunity to openly name and shame corrupt judicial officers and court support staffers.

Mawanda explained that the national court open day is among the deliberate efforts the Judiciary is making to strengthen accountability, scale up stakeholder engagements, sensitise court users and obtain feedback on services provided.

“The national court open day is aimed at improving the performance of the Judiciary and this is through receiving feedback from the court users that will enable us to know where to improve,” Mawanda noted.

He observed that public perception of the judiciary is often affected by the misunderstanding about the institutional role as well as the attitudes towards court decisions on matters of public interest.  

“Generally, the perception is that a poor person can never win a case. Whereas this may not be true, the perception persists and has displayed certain levels of mistrust that is eroding public trust and the image of the Judiciary.  All these efforts seek to boost the image of the Judiciary through strengthening participatory public engagement (court open days) and promotion of its brand,” he said.

Mawanda said while the judiciary has been conducting court open days at the court level, the national court open day will provide the opportunity for the entire judiciary top brass to attend and to respond to the concerns of the people. Chief Justice Alfonse Owiny-Dollo will preside over the event.

“With the presence of the top echelons at the helm of the Judiciary, informed answers shall be given to the people over the concerns they are expected to raise,” he noted.

Mary Kisakye, the registrar of research planning and development in the Judiciary said some of the activities of the day include demonstrations and sensitisation to the public on different court processes and exhibitions by the Judiciary and different justice institutions such as the Police, Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP), Uganda Prison among others.

Others include emphasising the mechanisms being re-engineered by the Judiciary for improved performance.

Kisakye said the national court open day will ride on the theme “A People-Centred Approach to Justice”, which has been the theme for the Judiciary this year.

A justice needs and satisfaction survey report by the Hague Institute for Innovation of Law (HIIL) with key stakeholders in the Judiciary, Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Affairs and the Governance and Security Secretariat formerly JLOS released last month shows that the resolution rate of cases by the Judiciary has increased whereby around 55% of all the cases filed have been resolved.

The report indicates that while many did find a satisfactory resolution to their problems, 45% of them did not, highlighting a need for service delivery models that enable people to prevent and resolve legal problems effectively.

The report, however, shows that only 10% of legal problems reach the formal justice system, implying that 90% of the legal disputes in the country are resolved through informal justice mechanisms.

To that note, the Judiciary has since resolved to formalise alternative dispute resolution in the administration of justice.