What is access to justice?
What is access to justice? In what ways then can Ghanaian citizens access justice? Yaw Abebrese from Accra questions The Mirror Lawyer.
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Dear Yaw, Justice in its broadest sense may be described as attaining or receiving something which is fair. The concept of justice is based on numerous fields including law, equity, ethics, rationality, religion, culture and morality. Article 125 of the 1992 Constitution provides that:
(1) Justice emanates from the people and shall be administered in the name of the Republic by the Judiciary which shall be independent and subject only to this Constitution.
(2) Citizens may exercise popular participation in the administration of justice through the institutions of public and customary tribunals and the jury and assessor systems
Article 35 (3) also states that: “The State shall promote just and reasonable access by all citizens to public facilities and services in accordance with law.”
Access to justice, therefore, may be described as the ability of people to seek and obtain remedy through institutions of justice in accordance with the standards of human rights enshrined in the 1992 Constitution of Ghana. It is essential that the people of Ghana have equal and easy access to justice to depict our coat of arms which says “freedom and justice”.
There is, therefore, the need to ensure that our people are free and have justice indeed. However, people do not have access to justice because of some impediments. A few of these obstructions are discussed below.
The first is lack of legal awareness. Citizens can access Justice when they are educated about their rights and responsibilities under the law. In effect, they know what the law expects of them.
The saying that “ignorance of the law is no excuse” means that every citizen of Ghana is expected to know the law. However, this is practically impossible because in Ghana, notice is given of the existence of a law by its publication in the gazette.
The question here is, how many Ghanaians are aware of the existence of the gazette? Because most Ghanaians are not aware of this, they do not know about the laws in existence. Also, some may be aware of the gazette; however is the gazette easily accessible? To the best of my knowledge, the gazette can be obtained by purchase at the Ghana Assembly Press. Since it is for sale, then another problem is how many people can afford to buy it? Most people cannot even afford a meal. These difficulties make it impossible for the ordinary citizen on our streets to know about the laws and the rights available to them.
Ghanaians need to be educated on the laws of Ghana and their rights which are protected by the Constitution which is the supreme law of Ghana. Once this is done, then the citizens would know what is to be done and not to be done, and how to seek redress for the wrongs done to them.
Another way of accessing justice is through Legal Aid. There are instances where people are aware of the law and the rights guaranteed under the law. However, these people are not able to obtain justice for their rights that are infringed upon. This is mostly because they cannot afford the legal fees involved in obtaining justice. Because of this hardship, the poor in society suffer injustice at the hands of the affluent in society.
For instance, persons who are arrested and detained are kept in remand for so many years without trial in contravention of Article 19(1) of the 1992 constitution, and since these persons cannot afford legal fees, they are not able to get legal representation, and yet some of them may be innocent.
In order to address such problems, Article 294 of the 1992 Constitution provides that, a person is entitled to legal aid in connection with any proceedings relating to the Constitution if he has reasonable grounds for taking, defending, prosecuting or being a party to the proceedings and that Parliament shall pass a law to provide for the granting of legal aid and representation by a lawyer, including such assistance as is given by a lawyer, in the steps preliminary or incidental to any proceedings or arriving at or giving effect to a compromise to avoid or to bring to an end any proceedings. Parliament did pass the Legal Aid Commission Act in 2018 but the legal aid programme is constrained by lack of resources, funding, infrastructure and the heavy workload on the few lawyers assigned to the institution.
The next is provision of adequate court facilities, court houses, judges and support staff to enable the citizens to have easy access to justice delivery. The distance some citizens are required to travel to access the courts is nothing to write home about. This has prompted the Judicial Service to educate and promote alternative methods of dispute resolution aimed at giving speedy, cost effective and healthier methods of justice delivery.
Not every issue must necessarily be brought before the courts. Simple family disputes, civil and petty criminal matters could be amicably resolved without recourse to the courts. This will eliminate the fear people have of the judicial system and also reduce the pressure in our courts, as well as achieving justice for the parties involved.
An example of such alternative mode of dispute resolution is negotiation, mediation and conciliation Arbitration. Also, traditional modes of resolving disputes in our communities such as negotiated settlement and customary arbitration have been given legal backing to ensure that decisions that are arrived at by these traditional systems are respected and complied with by all parties interested in the dispute.