Angola

Support to the Process of Reform and Modernisation of the Justice in Angola

The overall objective of this project is to improve access to justice for citizens, thus contributing to poverty reduction and promoting good governance in the long-term. This goal will be achieved by strengthening the entire justice system’s capacity to provide better services to citizens through a participatory reform process based on the reality of the country, the extension of the judicial coverage, the development of laws more adapted to the current context, and training of justice system personnel.

Expected results:

Participatory judicial and legal reform process through an operational plan informed by realistic and result-oriented studies.

Judicial institutions modernised and strengthened to provide better services by using/ basing on an improved system of judicial statistical data collection.

Capacity of the National Institute for Judicial Studies (INEJ) strengthened to professionalize the sector and promote multi-disciplinary research.

Participatory Reform of key legislation to improve and guarantee the effective functioning of the whole justice system, the access to civil identification documents and promote the access and use of alternative mechanisms of justice.

This programme contributes to the achievement of the following UNDAF outcomes:

About the project

During the past three years, the Government of Angola has been promoting the reform of the legal and judicial systems through a national commission created for this purpose. The Plan of Action developed in August 2005 attempts to provide solutions to various problems that beleaguer the proper functioning of the administration of justice through structural and legislative reforms. The current three-year project proposes to help the Government to deepen and improve the reform process by actions towards the participatory dissemination of the proposed Plan of Action, conducting studies and research on the actual situation of the courts and other conflict resolution bodies; modernisation and implementation of statistical information systems; providing multi-disciplinary vocational training of staff working in the legal and judicial systems; and carrying out the legislative reform.

The major components of the project are:

i) Support to the reform process through wide-ranging debate and consultation with peripheral justice institutions and civil society, as well as studies and surveys on the problems affecting the operations of the courts;

ii) Modernisation of institutions through the setting-up of computerized systems (databases) for the routine collection of statistical data;

iii) Strengthening the National Institute for Judicial Studies (INEJ) technical capacity, to provide quality professional training and conduct research on social issues that are relevant to the administration of justice, including informal conflict resolution mechanisms;

iv) Legislative reform of the Unified Justice System, of the Civil Registration Code, and the development of Civil Registration Code and a Decree to create Mediation and Conciliation Centres.

Target areas

The project coverage is nation wide. Workshops are to be held also in provinces, which are not yet defined. The training activities, even if conducted in Luanda, are directed to justice personnel nation-wide.