Allow me to pay my respects to His Majesty King Letsie III and Her Majesty the Queen ‘Masenate,

The Right Honourable the Prime Minister, Ntsokoane Sam Matekane,

Honourable Ministers in His Majesty’s Cabinet, in particular,

The Honourable Minister of Law and Justice, Hon. Richard Ramoeletsi

His Lordship the Chief Justice Sakoane Sakoane,

The Principal Secretary in the Ministry of Justice, Lira Ralebese

Honourable Deputy Principal Prosecutor, Hlalefang Motinyane,

Heads of Justice Sector Institutions and Law Society,

Their Excellencies Heads of Diplomatic missions and international organisations and members of their teams.

Representatives of Government Ministries,

Bo-‘M’e le Bo-Ntate,

All participants in today’s event,

Khotsong,

On behalf of the European Union, I am delighted to join you for this coordination meeting, and see here many representatives of different institutions.

As you know, the European Union is fully committed to promoting human rights and democratic governance through the programme “Support for the Reform and Strengthening of Governance in Lesotho”, aimed at strengthening oversight and accountability, at increasing the efficiency of justice service delivery, as well as access to quality justice for all.

At the heart of this programme, built in partnership with your institutions, is the belief that none of the above is possible without strong, effective, and accountable institutions.

Stronger coordination between criminal justice actors: police officers, prosecutors, courts, legal aid services, lawyers and correctional services is a key factor in ensuring citizens experience justice in a timely and fair manner, and in a way that they feel protected by the country’s judicial system.

This Forum is an open forum for all justice chain actors to discuss and resolve bottlenecks, so to make the Speedy Trial Act a reality. I am eager to hear your presentations on challenges hindering efficiency, and I look forward to the workplan you will be agreeing together – this will also greatly help to steer our programme where support is most needed. We often hear, justice delayed is justice denied.  Your institutions, collectively, have the power to ensure justice is no longer denied.

The presentation of the mapping of Legal Aid Unit made last week made it very clear that insufficient coordination among institutions involved in the delivery of justice lead to case processing delays and backlogs.

This, as well the replica at district level, is the space where to look for policy but also practical solutions to reduce the backlog and to expedite the delivery of justice. At local level, meetings are already taking place among police, judges and DPP to schedule more efficiently judicial proceedings in civil cases, for example by coordinating on the logistics of summoning witnesses from the same locality or involving the same officials.

Practical solutions should also be combined with necessary adoption of rules of procedures where necessary, and with the adoption of case management systems to facilitate progress in handling of cases – we have a good example of the automated coordination system with regards to traffic offenses, for example, from which we can learn.

Lastly, it was clear from the presentation on the mapping of Legal Aid Unit that sexual offenses and crimes stemming from gender based violence are the most common crimes. We know that there are still challenges with the operationalization of the Counter Domestic Violence Act and the establishment of the Family Courts - issues that we really encourage to address in this space.

We look forward to you instructions and guidance on these matter, I wish you all a fruitful meeting!

Kea leboha