The development of the judiciary and the rule of law must take account of customary and traditional practices, Botswana’s President Festus Mogae said on Monday.
Mogae was opening the Southern African Development Community chief justices’ conference on human rights.
”[Since] the development of a country’s legal system is evolutionary and home-grown, interpretations and practices must take account of the peculiarities of domestic situations,” he said.
He noted that in Western legal practice acquittals generally cannot be appealed by governments. This seems appropriate for parts of Europe and North America, but not for other regions.
”What about a situation in which race, religion or ethnicity corrupt the judicial system such that acquittals occur for unethical reasons?” he asked.
Are practices based on Western values, however admirable they might be in the abstract, really global?
”Are not some [legal] practices often simply due to the power and wealth of Western cultures and our exposure to them as a result of colonialism and imperialism to the exclusion of all evidence in favour of the legal cultures of the rest of humanity?” he asked.
Mogae also appealed for ”more user-friendly” courts, which he said will improve access to justice.
”Governments have their share of responsibility to provide human and financial resources and facilities to the courts; the judiciary too could contribute to this by modernising the processes and procedures of adjudication by making the court environment more user-friendly than it is at present,” he suggested.
The judiciary in the Southern African Development Community countries, he said, has no reason to fear for its independence.
”I am convinced that it is secure and stands on solid ground. The judiciary does not have to worry about defending it against hostile encroachment by anybody,” Mogae said.
He had special words of welcome for legal teams from South Africa, Angola and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
South Africa, he said, has for many years had a deformed legal system.
”We are delighted to welcome the representatives of the judiciary in South Africa, a country which, this year, is celebrating a decade of freedom and democracy. For many decades, there existed in South Africa a deformed constitutional and legal order, and even deformed rule of law, because it was devoid of justice and liberty for all,” he said. — Sapa