The judiciary is expected to implement a five-year strategy aimed at, among others, reducing staff turnover and case backlog, as well as constructing new buildings to facilitate court operations, according to the blueprint. ALSO READ: Rwanda Judiciary needs Rwf28bn to curb staff turnover Overall, the budget required for the implementation of the entire Judiciary Strategic Plan 2024-2029 is over Rwf141 billion, as per the costing detailed in the policy document, which was presented at a workshop held in Kigali, on December 27. Its executive summary points out that it is aligned with the second phase of National Strategy for Transformation’s (NST2) key priority of ensuring universal access to quality justice, and strengthening the justice system’s capacity, focusing on reducing the case backlogs by half and improving justice service delivery. Even though the judiciary realised “tangible achievements”, there are some challenges impeding the delivery of justice especially increase in case backlogs, staff turnover, and older and small court buildings, it pointed out. The new judiciary strategic plan targets addressing these challenges and achieving the stated goals through proper implementation of the five key pillars which are strengthening delivery of timely and quality justice, human resource management enhancement, strengthening the effectiveness, efficiency of digitalised systems, applications and innovations, strengthening the development of new infrastructure and strengthening communication and public relations, it indicated. Decreasing case backlogs The judiciary is constrained by a high increase in case backlogs – from 25 per cent in 2017/2018 to 59 per cent in 2023/2024, as per data in the policy document. The increase in case backlogs is attributed to a large volume of increasing number of cases from 63,360 in 2017/2018 to 107,315 in 2023/2024 which is not in proportion with the increase in number of judges and judicial personnel, the data showed. Under the new strategy, the judiciary seeks to gradually reduce case backlogs from 59 per cent as the baseline, to 30 per cent in 2028-2029, implying almost halving them in percentage terms. Such intervention is forecast to cost more than Rwf4 billion. In line with that, it also targets to gradually reduce the period for cases to be decided from the current 10 months [on average] to seven months in 2028-2029. A case filed in a court must be decided within six months, according to the existing laws. Delayed cases mean those pending for more than six months, and they are seen as backlog. ALSO READ: New study recommends ways to address judicial staff turnover, case backlog The total case backlog in Rwanda increased by 72 per cent over four years, from 52,952 cases in 2019/2020 to 91,050 cases in 2022/2023, according a September 2024 study titled “Justice Needs and Satisfaction of Citizens in Rwanda,” citing data from the Judiciary’s 2022-2023 annual report. The study, which was validated by a workshop organised by the Judiciary, on Friday, December 27, was carried out by Transparency International Rwanda Reducing cases to be handled per judge per month The judiciary targets a gradual decrease in the number of cases judged per month per Judge from 24 currently, to 15 in 2028-2029. Again, it seeks to steadily decrease the number of caseloads per judge from the current 52 to 30 in the same period. ALSO READ: Justice: What's new in upgraded integrated case management system? Actions to deliver on such outputs include training court officials in court administration in order to master their respective court performance and to foster excellence in court leadership, training judges and registrars to effectively use digital tools. These tools are the Integrated Electronic Case Management System (IECMS), and Judicial Performance Management System (JPMS) to control case flow cycle in their respective responsibilities, and conducting inspection and monitoring to ensure compliance with standard time and quality given by law and instructions for smooth case management. The 2024 study by Transparency International Rwanda observed that a heavy workload can compromise the quality and thoroughness of judicial decisions, as judges may not have sufficient time to carefully consider each case. ALSO READ: Evaluation of judges on number of cases tried blamed for 'bad' court verdicts Addressing judicial staff turnover Information in the judicial policy statement indicates that the judiciary faces a challenge of a high turnover of staff, where over the past 20 years, 35 per cent of the staff left the judiciary. In line with addressing the issue, under human resource management enhancement, it targets to gradually decrease that staff turnover rate to 15 per cent in 2028-2029, an endeavour estimated to cost more than Rwf28.5 billion over five years. The employee turnover is attributed to the low remunerations and conditions of services which do not attract and retain talent in the judiciary, the policy document pointed out, adding that this is in addition to the heavy workload resulting in case backlog pressure. It observed that the index values of most judicial staff remain among the lowest, while the job positions are inconsistent with job requirements. Actions to solve the issue include implementing staff attraction and retention measures, and instilling a spirit of excellence and devotion to judicial work by improving the performance contract rewards. Increasing new court rooms Judiciary faces challenges of insufficient court buildings, according to the strategic plan, which indicated that key interventions to address them include the construction of the judiciary headquarters, the construction of new court buildings (eight) to help courts conduct their operations, with more than Rwf74.7 billion needed from 2025-2026 fiscal year to 2028-2029, averaging over Rwf18 billion per year. Another intervention is the refurbishment of court buildings projected to require more than Rwf8.8 billion from 2024-2025 to 2028-2029, implying over Rwf1.7 billion in annual expenditure on average. With such funding, 15 court buildings are planned to be refurbished within five years. ALSO READ: Rwanda saved over Rwf7bn through alternative dispute resolution in 2023 Cases settled through mediation and plea-bargaining to triple It is projected that, with the strategy execution, the percentage of cases settled through mediation and plea-bargaining will be tripled from 10 per cent, which is the baseline, to 30 per cent in 2028-2029. Under strengthening the delivery of timely and quality justice, the strategy puts forward interventions including fostering the use of court-annexed mediation and plea-bargaining for cases submitted to courts. It added that mandatory pre-filing mediation should be initiated and practiced.
