What is the project Supporting Citizens Access to Justice doing:

The Project will provide valuable information to Mozambique and stakeholders on challenges faced by citizens to Access Justice in at least 5 districts, within three provinces of Mozambique, as well as developments taking place in the sector. The project will build the capacity for local Judges, Prosecutors, prison officials and staff, Police and free legal aid lawyers/paralegals in addressing citizen’s needs on access to justice, with special attention to the vulnerable population.

How is this being achieved:

Supporting Citizens Access to Justice (Penal Justice and Cross Cutting Issues) project isb targeted to improve the access to justice by the most vulnerable part of the population. It looks and addresses key challenges at criminal investigation, prosecution and trial as well as the conditions in prisons with the objective of targeting those areas were improvement can be made. 

It is achieved through

• training initiatives
• construction of Palace of Justices
• a new one-stop approach to access to justice services at decentralized level
• rehabilitation of prisons and criminal investigation laboratories
• provision of equipment to Attorney General’s Office, registry services, prisons, laboratories, and other justice services.

The project relies also on raising awareness of community judges, and the general population in relation to cross cutting issues in connection to access to justice. The project will organize workshops, research and plays to have better information and pass the message. The project will publish 3 studies in the areas of Human Rights perceptions, Women situation in Justice and Police sector and HIV and AIDS legal related matters. The project will publish a further study on Free Legal Aid in Mozambique.

Why:

Access to justice is one of the conditions for the enjoyment of citizen’s human and constitutional rights. Taking into consideration the high poverty rate coupled with high illiteracy rate of a significant part of Mozambican society, it is important that irrespective of people’s level of education or economic situation, conditions are set for the full enjoyment of access to Justice by all.

MDGs supported:

Goal 3 - Promote Gender equality and empower women

Who are involved:

The Ministry of Justice is the Implementing Partner of this project. The Supreme Court, Attorney General’s Office and Ministry of Interior are other Government partners. Civil Society Organizations include human rights' organisations Liga dos Direitos Humanos, APDCOMA, and many others working at the district level. The UNDP team is responsible for the supervision of project management including management of funds and for policy advisory services.

Locations:

Maputo city (national level).
Inhambane, Sofala and Nampula provinces and Morrumbene, Massinga, Cheringoma, Moma and Ribáuè districts in these provinces.

Results:

• Capacity development: the project has romoted a participatory approach throughout the implementation of project activities. It piloted a new approach to Access to Justice at Decentralized level, by constructed Palaces of Justice, where the 4 key services of administration of penal justice system (Criminal Investigative Police, Prosecution, Courts and Free Legal Aid) work under the same premises and provide services to the citizens.  
• The Free Legal Aid works as a one stop shop where citizens submit their  complaints, have these channeled to the dedicated institution and they further receive legal assistance. This initiative has been adopted as a pilot by the Justice system and is already been replicated in other regions of the Country.
• It has promoted linkage between the work of formal justice system and informal (traditional) justice system.
• It has trained and promoted awareness of community justice practitioners to apply decisions based on constitution and human rights standards.
• 3 Palace of Justices have been inaugurated and are fully functional, 4 prisons have been rehabilitated including one for juveniles, 2 criminal investigation laboratories were rehabilitated and fully furnished/equipped.
• Over 1000 professionals have been trained including judges, prosecutors, criminal investigation staff, and prison staff.
•  The project has conducted 4 studies: The research on human rights, women in the justice and police sector, HIV and AIDS related legal issues and of Free Legal Aid carried out within the framework of the project, were validated in national seminars. Their results and recommendations are feeding the Justice institutions for improved policies in the respective areas.
• The work with civil society on human rights, women rights, HIV and AIDs, Free Legal Aid and Prison was maximized and very positive for the interaction between the Justice sector and the CSO.

Key lessons learned:  

• Support to justice at decentralized level greatly increase access to justice to citizens since it focus on both formal and informal justice system
• The work with civil society is critical for maximization of awareness and promotion of human rights by government officials (mostly police) and traditional justice practitioners
• The project maximized participatory approach and the direct involvement of beneficiary institutions for the planning and implementation of project activities. This has greatly contributed to the ownership of initiatives, improved performance and delivery, reduction in duplication of similar actions by the Government,
• Projects with constructions plans should include in project team specialists on construction works (engineers).
• The quality of procurement should never be compromised. 

Evaluation report on EC website www.delmoz.ec.europa.eu  

Duration:

over 5 years - from September 2005 to 31 December 2010; extended to the end 2011

Project code:   36068 

Donors:

European Union (www.delmoz.ec.europa.eu )    $12,955,711.25 (88.09%)  -   $679,903 in 2010
UNDP    $ 1,543,617.59 (11.91%)

Project delivery 2010:

Project delivery in 2009: US$ 2,602,958

Contacts:

Habiba Rodolfo, Programme Specialist, Justice
UNDP
Tel: 21  481 400/21 481 402
E-mail: habiba.rodolfo@undp.org

Ministry of Justice
Dr. Gaspar Moniquela (Gabinete de Assessoria) 
Av. Eduardo Mondlane, Praceta Heróis de Mucaba, 130 2° andar Porta 5
Phone: 21 301170/21 428855

Related Documents:

The situation of Human Rights in Mozambique presented to the UN Council of Human Rights  - 12 February 2011

Mozambique to adopt a new mechanism to protect human rights  - 16 September 2010

New premises for access to justice in Inhambane inaugurated  - 15 September 2009