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     Access to justice for all in free will and without borders            Our priority is to carry out justice in the shortest possible time            Where justice is achieved, prosperity is enforced            Access to justice for all is the first duty society            Access to justice exists when it can be afforded for all      
Chief Justice Meets Mr.Mollema Netherlands Head of Mission  


4/2/2017

On April 2, 2017 – Chief Justice Chancellor Emad Saleem Saad met with Netherlands Head of Mission Mr. Peter Mollema and Junior Policy Officer Mr. Auke Wibaut in the presence of Judge Izzat Al-Ramini to discuss mutual cooperation.

Chancellor Saad welcomed the attendance and appreciated the role of Netherland in supporting Palestinians justice sector anticipating to establish strong relations between both parties and to achieve High Judicial Council Strategic Plan 2017-2022.  It is worth noting that HJC plan includes huge aspirations to start a reformation process and to activate the performance of HJC in particular and judicial system in general, paying a attention to resolve backlog and accelerate case disposal due to high rate of incoming cases in courts which indicates that citizens trust judiciary. HJC considers that speeding up case disposal is a priority and a way to achieve justice taking into consideration that this process needs group of procedures and requirements in order to accomplish it in the proper way, knowing that HJC is to finish a study related to causes and reasons for backlog cases whither form judiciary or lawyers or Public Prosecution or lawsuit parties or notification system, the study presents a joint vision to overcome obstacles and propose solutions. Hence, HJC seeks to start several projects mainly concerned in specialization of judges in gender and commercial cases which needs cooperation and assistance from international donors and local partners.

High Judicial Council works on activating proceedings in courts and controlling their procedures through training and rehabilitating judges in addition to preparing standardized guidance manuals on case management and activating the texts of the Civil Procedures Law regarding judicial settlement which has been successful in several countries in decreasing backlog and case load through resolving disputes by judge of settlement before they reach regular courts. Hence, HJC anticipates your help and assistance in this issue to start implementing judicial settlement method; Knowing that we have started to identify optimum timeline for cases before courts in a way which obliges judges with a specific deadline to finish case disposal. As for Notification System, HJC is reviewing it in order to keep up with the latest developments in communications and technology through submitting such new technology legally especially in Area C, it is not under the Palestinian Authority sovereignty, which helps in handing over notifications for citizens and facilitates and coordinates transferring detainees from one place to another.

Concerning the enhancement of public services, High Judicial Council seeks to improve Electronic Serveries Program which enables citizens to submit different types of applications they may need from courts and judiciary through e-mails, the program also provides access for lawyers to check their files, schedules and procedures of cases. The goal of the program is to ease load in Registry Departments in courts, it is worth noting that HJC calls for assistance from donors to develop all departments related to public services such as Notary Public, Execution Department, and Traffic Violations Department.

Courts' Infrastructure is a key factor in facilitating access to justice for all citizens. Ramallah is considers the most crowded city in Palestine and its courts are in critical need to construct new buildings because the buildings are rented not owned by Judicial Authority and not appropriate for litigation process, accordingly, Ramallah is in need to establish Palace of Justice to meet all requirements of litigation and judicial process; knowing that the Government of Canada funded the constructions of Tulkarim Courthouse and HJC in the starting process of building Hebron Courthouse with the help of international donors.

For his part, Mr. Peter Mollema indicated that several topics will be discussed during the meeting which will be held May 25th 2017, for example: support the needs of judicial system and help judicial system to implement its role and tasks, Mr. Mollema added that Netherlands has talked with Canadians regarding constructions of courthouses and they intents to fulfillment their commitments. He assured their willingness to work with judicial authority and to provide assistance for High Judicial council in implementing its strategic plan which facilitates access to justice. Mr. Mollema informed about several topics in order to be clarified appropriately for donors   such as: the relationship between High Judicial Council and Ministry of Justice (roles, mandates and responsibilities of each part), the relationship between High Judicial Council and constitutional Court and Executive Authority, and the extent of interventions form Executive Authority.

H.E. Chancellor Saad assured that relationship with all key actors of justice sector is based on cooperation and coordination adding that the Basic Law gives full independence for judiciary and no one can intervene in judicial system or judges affairs. Regarding Constitutional Court, its work is submitted to law and it has administrative and financial independence, HJC don’t intervene in the roles of Constitutional Court judges and their work mechanism is separated from Regular Courts.

Regarding the interventions form Executive Authority. H.E. Chancellor Saad emphasized that there are no such issue and they are all allegations came from unknown agendas of some civil society organizations; assuring that judicial authority is one of the three pillars of State of Palestine works alongside with Executive Authority and Legislative Authority, meanwhile we look forward to coordinate and work side by side with CSOs especially with the absence of the Legislative Council.