UNMISS trains Bor justice officials to keep records

15 May 2013

UNMISS trains Bor justice officials to keep records

15 May 2013 - Aiming to enhance community access to justice, UNMISS completed a two-day training in case management and record keeping today for officials in Bor, Jonglei State.

Speaking at the workshop, UNMISS Judicial Affairs Officer Mike Dzakuma said the training would assist in tackling challenges at different levels of the justice chain.

"Challenges, such as delayed court cases and lack of coordination between prisons and judiciary, arise from poor record management," he said. "The idea behind this training is to... see how to best manage cases."

Some 25 officials from the police, judiciary and prisons attended the training, which was organized in collaboration with the UN Development Programme (UNDP) Rule of Law Unit.

Mr. Dzakuma said it was vital to have continuous training to cover all stages of the system, from police investigation to prosecution and sentencing in courts.

"Participants noted that in the past they were (mixing up) criminal justice and civil justice cases," he said. "They will (now be able to) separate the two categories."

He noted that the challenges were not exclusive to Jonglei State or South Sudan, but also happened in all other parts of the world.

Lazarus Jok, a Jonglei State High Court clerk, said the training would enable him to keep better track of files of recorded cases.

"The training is especially (useful) for me because I got this job when I came from Khartoum recently, but had no experience in record management," said Ayen Michael, a new prison warden.