ABOUT US
The Judicial Reform and Institutional Strengthening (JURIST) Project is a five year regional Caribbean judicial reform initiative funded under an arrangement with the Government of Canada. The Project is being implemented on behalf of Global Affairs Canada and the Conference of Heads of Judiciary of CARICOM (the Conference), by the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ), which was appointed by
the Conference as its Regional Executing Agency (REA). The Project is working with judiciaries in the region to support their own efforts to improve court administration and strengthen the ability of the courts and the judiciary to resolve cases efficiently and fairly. The Project is being implemented in at least six countries and will be expanded to include other territories in the region. The Project is also building the capacity of regional trial and appellate courts, including the CCJ, to facilitate the deepening of economic integration and improve court governance, case flow management and the timeliness of case disposition. The enhancement of fair and efficient case disposition will improve the quality of justice delivery, inspire public confidence in the justice system, foster gender equality throughout the courts and make the region more attractive to foreign and domestic investment. THE JURIST PROJECT AND CARICOM
The deepening of regional integration requires among other things, a court system which can provide predictability in terms of the resolution of disputes, timeliness in case disposition and high quality court administration. It also requires a court system which can play its part in enhancing stability in the region by addressing hindrances to economic development. The modernising of the justice system is critical and was indicated as a necessary objective by many judiciaries around the region. This will ensure that matters are disposed of quickly, efficiently and with fairness to all parties. The development of a network of commercial courts will also support economic development. The Project also acknowledges that for judicial reform to be successful, judiciaries must not only play a key role, but also drive the effort. Judiciaries within CARICOM continue to engage in court reforms and to adopt best practices in various areas across sectors of the judiciary. The Project is designed to bolster the judiciaries’ own initiatives and to provide resources so that they can be achieved in a shorter time span. It is in direct response to this strong region-wide consensus that the JURIST Project was born. The Project is undertaking reform processes that will address regionally identified priorities and the Conference will have a key steering, supervising and facilitating role in the reforms. PROJECT GOALS AND ACTIVITIES
The Project’s stated overarching goal is to establish a judicial system that is more responsive to the needs of women, men, youths and businesses. To achieve this goal, the Project focuses on two intermediate and three immediate outcomes. The intermediate outcomes seek to (i) strengthen customer focused, gender responsive court and judicial service delivery in the CARICOM region and (ii) improve gender responsive systems, court policies and procedures. These will be achieved through the following immediate outcomes:
i. Improved capacity of courts to deliver gender responsive and customer focused services. Enhanced capacity of the courts to undertake public education programs. Strengthened capacity of courts for efficient court governance, case management and case disposition. In order to support the achievement of these immediate outcomes, a number of strategies and reform initiatives are being implemented. The following strategies are being adopted to achieve the first immediate outcome:
• Training on court administration and adjudication that is gender responsive and customer focused;
• Developing model guidelines for handling sexual offence cases (including cases involving children); and
• Re-engineering of business processes in selected courts to prioritise gender sensitive administrative and customer service procedures. The second immediate outcome is being achieved through:
• Support being given to courts in developing tools for delivering public education programs and receiving customer feedback; and
• Establishing a knowledge management system. The third immediate outcome is employing the following strategies:
• Implementing delay and backlog elimination mechanisms;
• Establishing a business model for a regional Information and Communications Technology (ICT) solution (specifically a Case Management System); and
• Developing and operationalizing specialised courts/divisions.
