Justices’ Council of the Supreme Court of the Maldives has given approval to the Maldives Judiciary Action Plan 2016-2017. The Council’s assent was stamped today, at a meeting held at the Supreme Court.
The Plan, which sets out goals of development as well as activities and programs to be conducted to achieve those goals, has stipulated four main areas of concentration. They are, enhancing access to justice, improving timeliness and quality of the delivery of justice, enhancing accountability, independence, integrity and oversight, and increasing coordination in the criminal justice system.
Various activities and programs conducted under the Judiciary Action Plan 2016-2017 would be targeted mainly at judges and the staff of the Judiciary. However, a number of activities have been designed for the legal fraternity and the general public as well. As such, programs of continuing legal education and training would be provided for lawyers, while a number of programs have been formulated in order to provide the public with necessary information about the workings of the Judiciary.
Significant activities under the new Action Plan include the creation of an Alternative Dispute Resolution Committee and providing ADT training for judges and judicial staff, doing a SWOT analysis of courts in order to develop the administrative and organizational capacity and strength of the courts, developing the case management systems currently used in the courts in order to enhance capacity to deliver justice speedily, and conducting a seminar on restorative justice for judicial officers, lawyers and prosecutors and other stakeholders involved in the justice system.
Implementation and monitoring of the Judiciary Action Plan 2016-2017 would be done by the Supreme Court, while the Department of Judicial Administration and the Judicial Academy of the Maldives would act as lead implementation agencies on behalf of the Judiciary.