Players in the Justice, Law and Order Sector (JLOS) have called for the digitisation of the justice system.
They made the call during a workshop organised in collaboration with the Innovation Village to engage stakeholders on how technology can be leveraged to improve access to justice.
Sam Rogers Wairagala, the Deputy Senior Technical Advisor at Governance and Security (JLOS) Secretariat said: "Today, technology is increasingly being pitched as a solution to ease access to justice. Whereas challenges and bottlenecks exist in the adoption of technology in Uganda’s legal and justice system, efforts are being made by different players within the sector to ensure that digital innovations such as video conferencing for court hearings, e-case filings, digital exhibits and evidence presentation are increasingly used during legal processes”.
The workshop tackled key areas within the justice sector where technology can be leveraged to enable faster, more efficient case management, effective conflict resolution, and easy access to the legal system.
Edgar Kuhimbisa, the e-Justice and digital transformation lead at the JLOS Secretariat, in his remarks reinforced the need for public-private partnerships in driving the digital justice agenda.
"Our collaboration with players in this ecosystem such as the Innovation Village through the LegalTech Lab is crucial in enabling us to innovate around development of digital legal solutions that can optimise citizen interaction with the justice institutions to ease the justice journey of the ordinary Ugandan," Kuhimbisa noted.
Hellen Mukasa, LegalTech Lab Lead at the Innovation Village said transforming the justice sector through innovation makes the justice system more accessible and equitable to all, which helps streamline administrative processes, avoid red tape, and reduce massive court cases and backlogs currently experienced by the system.
