Justice programme starts in Malawi

Primary justice, a programme introduced five years ago in Malawi to speed up delivery of justice in courts is bearing fruits. Mchinji District coordinator for the Primary Justice Project, Grant Khola said last week that the project has registered several successes since its inception.

“The programme has among other things led to the reduction of cases in convectional justice system besides allowing more people, especially women to access justice,” said Khola.

He also disclosed that there has been considerable reduction of ‘Chabwalo or fine’ demand from chiefs when sitting over cases in Mchinji, situated about 120km from Lilongwe and sharing boundary with Zambia.

“The success is due to support the programme has received from government courts and chiefs,” said Khola.

Monitoring and Evaluation Officer for the project in Mchinji, Emmanuel Sohaya said the initiative has been training chiefs and their clerks on the programme to avoid duplication of rules and responsibilities.

“We noticed that there was bad blood developing between chiefs and their clerks because they did not know about their specific roles in the execution of the alternative justice system”, said Sohaya.

Primary Justice Project is a brain child of the British Government’s development wing, the Department for International Development (DFID) and is being implemented by the Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace (CCJP).

The project is aimed at allowing people resolve disputes, increase access to justice within their cultural set up falling within the informal sector with community based educators as primary instruments responsible for awareness campaign.
Access to justice for women especially in rural Malawi remains a challenge according to a study that Women and Law in Southern Africa (WLSA)-Malawi chapter national coordinator Seodi White and fellow researchers conducted in Malawi.

“In relation to rural women, it was found that chiefs and marriage counselors were accessed most highly where domestic violence was concerned. Where injury resulted, the matter was taken to police after obtaining a letter from the chief.

"The subordinate courts were accessed by rural women the most in cases where they sought divorce. Chiefs and District Commissioners’ officers were accessed the most where property grabbing cases were concerned,” says the research in part.