Mr Enock Jengre, Rule of Law Specialist at Legal Resources Centre (LRC), has called on stakeholders in the judicial sector to uphold the sector’s integrity and accountability to maintain public confidence in the justice system.
He said “When justice is inaccessible, the result is injustice, injustice leads to bitterness, anger, revolt and ultimately political and social disintegration”.
Mr Jengre made the call during a sensitization workshop on Ghana Case Tracking System (CTS), in Tamale.
The event, organized by LRC in partnership with Crime Check Foundation (CCF), and funded by USAID, was to strengthen advocacy of key Justice Sector Institutions to improve justice delivery in Ghana.
It was also to increase citizen oversight and monitoring of criminal cases.
Mr Jengre said some of the challenges affecting the justice delivery system were the high cost of initiating or defending suits in judicial processes and “corruption which has reduced the public trust in the courts”.
He said there were some perceptions that the Executive Arm of Government and political actors often interfered in justice delivery process, adding that, the act had been promoting injustice deliveries in the country.
Mr Jengre, therefore, urged stakeholders to collaborate with government and other institutions to strengthen advocacy for accountability in the judicial sector to help increase citizens’ knowledge and access to services in the judicial service.
Mr Samuel Fant Kombian, Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning Specialist at LRC, highlighted the CTS and said it was a reform supported by USAID-Ghana to enhance government’s ability to effectively investigate and prosecute criminal acts in the country.
He added that the CTS would increase effective investigation and prosecuting of criminal cases, especially those related to corruption, border security, maritime security and cybercrime.
Mr Kombian urged the government to resource the Legal Aid Commission with adequate logistics and staff to help boost their work for an effective justice system.
The LRC is a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) established in 1998 to conduct research, advocacy and advisory services and also offer legal aid services to individuals, organizations and communities, while Crime Check Foundation (CCF) is a crime prevention NGO which deploys documentaries to highlight infractions of the law and the violations of the rights of inmates.