Photo by Mohamad Almahady, UNAMID.
Some 30 rural court judges from remote localities in North Darfur attended a two-day training on adjudication and mediation, supported by UNAMID Rule of Law (RoL) Section, in El Fasher, North Darfur from 9 to 10 July 2018.
The participants were trained on adjudication processes, including civil and criminal legal procedures applicable to rural courts, as well as mediation techniques to settle inter communal and other disputes.
Each participant received a legal Hand book in Arabic, with all necessary civil and criminal legal procedures that comes within the jurisdictional parameters of the work of rural courts. The Handbook, published by UNAMID RoL in collaboration with Sudan Judiciary, also contains a chapter on mediation techniques.
Addressing participants, Ms. Francoise Simard, Head of UNAMID RoL, said the Mission, working with the Sudan Judiciary, is providing logistical support to strengthen the institutional capacity of rural court judges to address land disputes and other drivers of conflict. This is in line with the United Nations Security Council Resolution 2363 (2017), which mandates UNAMID to continue to focus on providing advisory and logistical support to strengthen rural courts’ capacity to address land disputes and other conflict drivers.
“I hope that this two-day workshop will help rural court judges to have a better awareness about Sudan laws, including civil and criminal legal procedures, as well as the mediation of disputes,” she said.
The chief Judge of North Darfur, Mr. Sameer Mohamed Sayed commended UNAMID for the continued support to strengthen the justice sector in Darfur.
Rural courts resort to settlement of disputes, including land disputes, by way of mediation and conciliation among the most efficient methods of alternate dispute resolution, thus ensuring justice to all parties concerned. They also promote dialogue as an appropriate channel to achieve both justice and reconciliation amongst tribes, particularly about land disputes as suggested by Article 52 of the Doha Document for Peace in Darfur (DDPD).
The training builds on the first round of workshops that trained a total of 150 rural court Judges in all five Darfur states during the 2017/18 financial year.