President Rawlings Opens Fifth African Regional Ombudsman Conference

Accra, (Greater Accra) 22 Sept., President Jerry John Rawlings said today that the arbitration role of Traditional Councils must be given the chance to reduce the volume of court cases. ''I sincerely believe that there is need and room for our traditional process of arbitration to contribute to our democratic process and the delivery of social justice,'' he said. The President was opening the Fifth African Regional Conference of Ombudsman at the Accra International Conference Centre. The four-day conference which is under the theme ''the importance of administrative justice in the democratisation process in Africa'' is being attended by delegates from 17 African countries. President Rawlings said democracy increases awareness and demand for justice which the slow and expensive court process put beyond the reach of the poor and illiterate. President Rawlings said the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), which has been operating for five years now, is also saddled with cases ''beyond its administrative capabilities''. He said Africa's modernisation has seen the erosion of traditional values and practices which in the past provided protection for both the individual and the community. For instance, in the past, taboos and moral edicts were sufficient deterrents for various crimes like rape, child defilement and social misdemeanours. ''Today, neither our elaborate Criminal Code nor court punishments against such social malpractices have deterred their occurrence. Rather, they are on the increase''. Democracy and administrative justice ''are therefore guaranteed not only by formal institutions, some of which tend to be alien to our culture, but also need the responsibility or goodwill of the individual''. The President said the important factor of individual conformity with the law and democracy requires people's ''cultural relativity to modern procedures''. He said parties to a dispute who get the opportunity to state their cases in their own language before a court of their peers or elders are more likely to abide by their judgements than parties who sit through lengthy, expensive formal court procedures dominated by lawyers speaking alien languages.