AG to review criminal justice system

The Attorney General's Department and Ministry of Justice is reviewing the criminal justice system to, especially ensure
fair trial and early execution of justice.

Joe Ghartey, Attorney General and Minister of Justice has said that the Ministry also intends to create a Remand Magistrate Court that would ensure early prosecution of suspects on remand for several years..

He was speaking at a meeting with multi-donor agencies who called on the Ministry for a policy dialogue and other issues related to multi-national support.

The Minister said the Ministry was committed to justice, human rights, integrity and economic development for all and had therefore developed a number of strategic and work plans to ensure justice and an effective judicial system.

According to Mr. Ghartey the Ministry would this year come out with a Charter, which would also serve as a guideline to educate the general public on all its functions and structures.

He said the Ministry, which had the responsibility to provide legal advice to Government on all treaties entered into with other countries, was partnering the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to ensure indexing of such treaties.

Mr. Ghartey said the Ministry would also launch a major anti-corruption campaign at all levels and form an inter-government network at all levels of the economy to fight corruption.

The Minister noted that lack of good networking among divisional and regional offices, poor recordkeeping and lack of motivation for its staff, especially the non-legal staff, served as a challenge to the Ministry attracting staff and good infrastructure.

Mr Ghartey noted that most qualified lawyers preferred to work with private chambers instead of the Ministry and the non-legal staff could not head their departments."

He stated that the Ministry would put in place staff development programmes and modern database systems to ensure that all judicial cases were captured within the Ministry.

The Ministry would also organise specialisation programme for lawyers in various aspects of legal issues.

Dr Mechththild Runger, Programmes Manager of German Technical Development Cooperation (gtz) said the delegation representing donor support agencies had come to assess policies and report to their agencies on commitments to good governance and rule of law.

She said such reports would enable their agencies to continue to provide the necessary aid to government to strengthen bi-lateral relations.

Dr Runger commended Government and the Ministry for instituting various judicial reform programmes to ensure justice for all.

Other donor agencies present were the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Netherlands Embassy and the Department for International Development (DFID).

Source: GNA