Improving Citizens' Local Access to Justice (SN0008)

What is the public issue that the commitment will address? Over the last two decades, Senegal has taken many measures to bring justice closer to the citizens. These include the reform of the judicial map and the creation of houses of justice (Administration), law desks (Association of Senegalese Lawyers) and legal and administrative assistance centres (Civil Forum). These structures play an important role in conflict resolution through mediation, access to information on rights and support for those subjected to the law. However, there are a number of difficulties that still limit access to local justice for citizens, namely the inadequacy of reception structures, their lack of visibility and the weakness of material and human resources.

What are the objectives of the commitment? The objective of this commitment is to improve citizens' access to local justice, in particular through • the building of 10 houses of justice ; • increasing awareness of the advantages of local justice in terms of recourse to alternative methods of settling social conflicts, access to information on rights, accessibility to conflicts solving mechanisms, flexibility of procedures, etc.

How would the commitment contribute to solving the public issue? Scaling up these alternative models of justice, which take up the traditional principles and methods of regulating and managing family conflicts and private disputes, will facilitate citizens' access to justice.

Why is this commitment relevant to the OGP values? This commitment will help facilitate access to fair justice for all.

Further Information Senegal currently has 20 houses of justice throughout the country, staffed mainly by contractual workers and volunteers. The number of people using these infrastructures is constantly increasing. This shows that there is a real need for the population to have access to justice, and 32 therefore justifies the relevance of these structures. Thus, from 2006 to 2018, the Houses of Justice received 385,064 users (DJPPAD 2019 annual report). As for the claims relating to "small debts", they helped to recover debts amounting to 2,365,352,904 CFA francs from 2010 to 2018.

Important activity with a verifiable deliverable Agenda Start Closure 1. Conduct a perception survey on local justice January 2022 June 2022 2. Strengthen the capacities of the actors of the local justice policy framework January 2022 December 2023 3. Strengthen the workforce and harmonize the composition of the teams assigned to the Houses of Justice January 2022 December 2023 4. Develop and implement a collaboration mechanism with the “badiènou gokh” and other community relays January 2022 December 2023 5. Develop and disseminate information and communication tools to facilitate access to the houses of justice January 2022 December 2023 6. Open a virtual front office for the houses of justice January 2022 December 2022 7. Build and equip 10 new Houses of Justice January 2022 December 2023

Action Plan Review

Commitment 8: Strengthening Local Access to Justice Mechanisms

Results Report

Commitment 8. Strengthening Local Access to Justice Mechanisms

The objective of this commitment was to improve citizens' access to local justice, in particular through (i) the building of 10 houses of justice and (ii) increasing awareness of the advantages of local justice in terms of recourse to alternative methods of settling social conflicts, access to information on rights, accessibility to conflict solving mechanisms, flexibility of procedures, etc.

The IRM researcher received information on progress of three of the seven milestones in this commitment. Milestones with some progress include capacity-building of local justice system actors and developing a collaboration mechanism with the “badiènou gokh” and other community relays. [24] The Ministry of Justice has also built 15 additional Houses of Justice, which provide guidance and mediate family and private conflicts. [25] As of 2023, the Directorate for Local Justice and Promotion of Access to Law reports a total of 31 Houses of Justice, four legal information offices at universities to facilitate access to legal information, and 19 reception and orientation offices to guide litigants through the courts. [26] Implementation advanced the important aim of strengthening access to justice services. However, activities undertaken through this commitment did contribute to opening government to citizens. Therefore, this commitment did not achieve notable early results.

[24] Idem.

[25] Idem.

[26] Directorate for Local Justice and Promotion of Access to Law, Ministry of Justice. 2022 and 2023 reports. https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1gIUo21ipvnAu8wCJ917JZoUbImABOYuA