President Paul Kagame will Monday, September 6 preside over the launch of the Judicial Year 2021/2022 at Parliament in a ceremony that will be attended by senior officers from civilian and military courts as well as high-ranking government officials and diplomats. The Spokesperson for the Rwanda Judiciary; Harrison Mutabazi told The New Times in a telephone interview that the ceremony, which is scheduled to take place at the Parliamentary Building will see Chief Justice Faustin Ntezilyayo shed light on what was achieved in the judicial year 2020/2021, the challenges and the way forward. “This is an activity that takes place every year at around this time. The Chief Justice highlights what transpired in the just concluded judicial year and then uses the opportunity to share the plan for the next year,” he said. This will be Ntezilyayo’s second judicial year since he took over from Chief Justice Sam Rugege in 2019. Rwandans are also expected to hear from the Prosecutor General President, Aimable Havugiyaremye and the president of the Rwanda Bar Association Julien Kavaruganda. Some of the highlights expected at the ceremony include the progress of the court mediation advisory committee, which was set up mainly to help in amicably solving civil litigations filed to courts. This is in line with part of the plan of building a judiciary based on Rwanda’s history of negotiation and resolution of disputes through home-grown initiatives like Gacaca community justice system and Abunzi (community mediators). Early last year, the Supreme Court published a list of 51 accredited mediators, most of whom are senior lawyers in the country which also includes other professionals like engineers. Another area that is expected to be highlighted is the plan regarding how case backlog which has been worsened by the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic will be dealt with. Last year, the courts were grappling with a backlog of 52,950 cases.
