By Ebere Agozie
The Hague Institute for the Innovation of Law (HiiL), a civil society organisation, says it is creating an enabling environment for justice service delivery models in Nigeria.
Ijeoma Nwafor, Country Representative of HiiL said this in her opening speech at the Core Convening Group, upscaling of people-centered justice delivery approach in Nigeria event organised by the institute on Tuesday in Abuja.
Nwafor said the aim of the event was to bring actors in the justice system together to create a suitable environment for access of justice and chart the way forward.
She said that HiiL is creating an enable environment for justice service delivery models across Nigeria.
She noted that in creating this environment, they recognise that when justice leaders come together and talk to themselves, they can make things happen when they go back to their spaces.
“We also understand that we cannot really do much without getting government involved and the government can’t really do much without the private sector having a buy-in.
“So, we at HiiL create an enabling environment by creating a healthy and safe environment for stakeholders to come together and dialogue’’.
She highlighted the journey that HiiL has undertaaken so far in making a people-friendly justice delivery system happen in Nigeria, and also the focus on moving the People-centred justice forward at the national level.
“We are also here to update justice leaders on what HiiL has been doing in Nigeria since the group’s last meeting, and chart the way forward.
“First, we work with data. The Justice Needs and Satisfaction survey goes to the street and towns of Nigeria asking Nigerians how their justice journey has been.
“`We try to figure out their ability to both prevent and resolve their justice needs.
“We are also into scaling up effective solutions by exploring innovations that emerge from stakeholders’ dialogues and labs’’.
She equally noted that HiiL applies best practices as seen in their guidelines to assist justice stakeholders in adopting evidence-based practice.
Maryam Abba, Operations Officer at HiiL Nigeria said that people-centred Justice is about moving from problems to solutions.
Abba noted that the Justice system in Nigeria, like other justice systems around the world, is facing similar challenges, which are funding, skills, capacity, and improved ITC.
“People-Centre Justice aims to move innovative solutions around these challenges by putting the people first. Justice that is accessible, affordable, and easy to understand. This is the task before us today.”
Felix Ota-Okojie, a director from the Federal Ministry of Justice and Secretary of the Coordinating Committee on Justice Sector Reform said all stakeholders must work together on the way forward for people-centred justice in Nigeria.
“I am very optimistic that today’s session and the inputs provided by participants at this session will help in moving people-centred justice forward in Nigeria’’ he added.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the event had in attendance representatives from the Federal Ministry of Justice, lawyers, judges, academics and social impact investors.
NAN also reports that the Core Convening Group had a breakout session to dialogue on the way forward with focus on funding, laws, policies, innovations and scaling.
The breakout session also discussed the issues around sustainability, through skills and capacity development, and improved ITC.
