Launching Ceremony of the Supreme Court Brochures

The Chief Justice in his short remarks thanked the Judges and court staff working through the court pamphlet working committee (composed of a Judge, Masters, Magistrates & court staff) and the developing partners who had contributed into making this activity possible and further stated that this was the first exercise for the Courts in Reaching Out into the communities.

He stressed that it is not the role of the Court to run awareness about the Courts but is the responsibility of the Government to educate people about Access to Justice.  However, the Court has taken the steps after several consultation meetings which took place in Port Vila and the outer islands in 2019, and saw the need to help the poor people, people with less education, the vulnerable group; about human rights, about how people can access justice and helping them understand court processes. A report of the 2019 consultation findings was published and is available on the Court Website through this link: https://courts.gov.vu/services/downloads/file/1810-pjsi-vanuatu-report-access-to-justice-enabling-rights-and-unrepresented-litigants

A total of eight brochures were produced that is; Civil and Criminal court processes each in the Supreme Court, Magistrate’s Courts and Island courts including Family Protection processes and Child Maintenance processes – all been translated into the three official languages (English, French & Bislama). The brochures are and will be available in all court registries throughout Vanuatu.

Last and most importantly the Chief Justice conveyed his gratitude to the Pacific Judicial Strengthening Initiative (PJSI) funded by the New Zealand Government and managed by the Federal Court of Australia, for their support and funding for the first 20,000 copies of the brochures (10,000 Bislama, 5,000 English and 3,000 French versions). The goal of PJSI is to build fairer societies by supporting Courts in the Pacific region to develop more accessible, just, efficient and responsive justice services.