African Women Lawyers Association (AWLA) in Ghana has set up a Court Users Committee (CUC) to ensure effective and fair justice delivery for court users in the Tema Metropolis.

The committee consist of members from AWLA, Ghana Police Service, Domestic Violence and Victims Support Unit ( DOVVSU) ,Department of Social Welfare, Legal Aid Scheme, People Wth Disability, Association of Magistrates and Judges, Commission of Human Right and Administrative Justice(CHRAJ) , and representative from the Tema Metropolitan Assembly.

Committee members as part of their mandate, would target the various courts, identify their challenges as well as the problems its users faced and come out with effective measures to deal with the issues.

The Committee was set up after a two-day workshop which was organized by AWLA with sponsorship from Star Ghana on the theme “Strengthening Civic Participation and Social Accountability in Justice Delivery”.

The work of the committee was also to ensure that Ghanaians who did not have the resources to engage judicial services would be protected and helped with their legal needs.

Madam Edna Kuma, Executive Director of AWLA, said some persons were tasked to monitor activities at the District Court at the TDC Development Company to assess judicial activities there adding that their investigation revealed among others that some cases had travelled between three and five years.

Madam Kuma added that findings further revealed that most Ghanaians did not understand the judicial process, and are also confronted with issues like financial difficulty in acquiring services of lawyers, delays in court proceedings as a result of transfer of judges, adjournment, and filing fee among others.

According to her, they observed that some of these numerous reasons accounted for many Ghanaians withdrawing cases from the judicial service and resorting to fetish priests and several spiritual means to deal with issues adding that such spiritual consultations usually ended up in disappointment therefore the need to establish the committee to help such persons.

She added that a dedicated mobile number would be made available for the members of the public who did not understand court processes or did not have the resources to engage services of lawyers to call for the needed help.

She also urged residents of Tema to make good use of the services of CHRAJ in their Tema Community Two office as they were mandated to attend to legal challanges of the citizenry.

Madam Fati Mahami, the CHRAJ Sub-Regional Director of Tema, on her part, said her outfit did not only deal with criminal matters but also civil cases including irresponsible parenthood, social security issues, and tenancy issues, among other issues.

Madam Mahami encouraged Ghanaians to make good use of the committee and CHRAJ by reporting to them whenever they felt they were not fairly treated at the court, do not have money to pay for filing fees as well as employment related issues.

“We are part of the Court Users Committee so if anyone needs help, if you feel you were not fairly treated at the court or due to some other reasons you cannot continue with judicial services, you can come to CHRAJ and we will help you out, ” she noted.