Annex 1 - case study matrix 5
Key issues impacting Community
Intervention
3. Strengthening dispute resolution through traditional leaders and their subordinate headmen118 in Malawi There are approximately 300 qualified lawyers in Malawi of which only a fraction practice law. In 1999 only 9 of the 217 magistrates were professionally qualified lawyers, increasing to 21 in 2006. In addition, most police prosecutors are not legally qualified. Magistrate courts are predominantly located in urban or semi-urban areas - a journey to the closest magistrates court can be up to 50 kilometres, compounded by bad roads and expensive or unavailable transportation. Community policing is organized according to the administrative structure surrounding traditional leaders. The police, however, generally lack resources to respond to the community police units. Both police and magistrate courts face a significant backlog of cases. The Malawian constitution recognizes customary law, as applied by Traditional Authorities (TA). Malawi has two types of informal justice system: 1. “Pabwalo” or “mphala” (in the north of the country), or dispute resolution by traditional leaders and their headmen. 2. Mediation schemes introduced at village level whereby trained mediators assist people to solve, primarily civilian, disputes.
The alternative justice systems are supported by the EU, DFID, UNDP, USAID and UNICEF. Their intervention has been through: 1. Community awareness-raising programmes on issues related to justice and human rights. 2. Training chiefs on a number of subjects, including human rights, the constitution, gender issues, court management, dispute resolution skills and sentencing principles. 3. Developing manuals for the purpose of training trainers drawn from local government, traditional leaders, community members, NGOs, CBOs, and religious leaders (in English and Chichewa) and developing a case record system for use by traditional adjudicators. 4. The Village Mediation Programme whose objective is to promote access to justice by building the capacities of village mediators in each village cluster to mediate minor cases while complying with human rights standards and giving the parties involved leeway to devise their own solutions. 5. Conducting research and studies on land-related topics.
111 Sourced from; Study on Informal Justice Systems – Access to Justice and Human Rights Case study report – Malawi. Annex 5 Carried out on behalf of UNDP, UNICEF and UNIFEM by the Danish Institute for Human Rights.
106 Rule of Law and Access to Justice in Eastern and Southern Africa: Showcasing Innovations and Good Practices