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Summit on transformation of the judiciary needed: Gender Commission

Summit on transformation of the judiciary needed: Gender Commission

7th December 2016

By: African News Agency

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The Commission for Gender Equality has recommended that a national summit be held to thrash out problems impeding gender transformation in the country’s judiciary.

The commission’s investigation on transformation of the judiciary found that the pace of appointing women, especially black women, was still slow post 1994, with more case briefs going to males compared to females.

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“There should be engagements between the parties – the commission, the Department of Justice, the Judicial Services Commission, Parliament’s portfolio committee on justice and the Presidency and convene a national summit to discuss transformation in the judiciary and come up with practical solutions and implementation plan on the matter. The commission, the complainants and other key institutions should prepare a discussion document on the various factors that may hamper the progression of women lawyers within the legal profession as a whole,” read the report released on Wednesday.

Even though more women were graduating with law degrees compared to men, more men were appointed judges and magistrates compared to women.

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The investigation found that authorities were unsure of their respective roles in ensuring gender transformation, and there had subsequently been “passing of the buck” between the relevant state entities.

The commission further recommended that the heads of prosecutions ensure equal distribution of case briefs to both women and men, especially black women. Government and its state-owned enterprises should also insist that the prosecution authority briefs women.

“The private law firms must further be engaged and encouraged to adopt policies and practice which ensure equal distribution of briefs to women. The bar councils in South Africa must be engaged and encouraged to adopt rules and practice which will ensure that women at the bar are briefed in matters involving a senior counsel or where a senior counsel requires a second junior.”

Furthermore, the commission recommended that judge presidents and their deputies at all court divisions be encouraged to approach women to act as judges in order to address the current imbalance.

Commission chairperson Mfanozelwe Shozi said issues on transformation were complicated, very broad and needed all role players on board.

“There is no clear cut solution in resolving the complaints laid with the commission. It is evident from the investigation report that the appointment process of judicial officers involves a number of role players such as law societies, academia, statutory bodies governing the profession, the JSC and the Department of Justice.”

“Thus it will not be a correct approach to have one institution take responsibility for the insufficient presence of women in the judiciary.”

The report into the transformation of the country’s judiciary followed complaints lodged with the commission by two non-government organisations, Democratic Governance and Rights Unit and the Sonke Gender Justice in 2012. The two organisations complained that gender transformation in the judiciary was too slow and did not reflect the racial and gender composition as guided by the Constitution.

At the time the complaints were lodged in 2012, statistics from the Law Society of SA showed there were more female graduates than male and more female admitted attorneys than male. Statistics from the General Council of the Bar of South Africa showed that there were 561 female practising advocates nationally out of a total of 2384 advocates.

The four-year-long investigation saw judge presidents, the President of the Republic, the Department of Justice and Correctional Services, the JSC and the Chief Justice of the Constitutional Court requested to answer questions on gender transformation of the judiciary.

Questions were also sent to other organisations such as the Black Lawyers Association (BLA), the Law Society of SA (LLSA), South African Chapter of the International Associate of Women Judges, the SA Judicial Education Institute, the National Association of Democratic Lawyers (Nadel) and the Judge Presidents of the High Courts and Appellant Division of South Africa.

Shozi said the BLA did not respond to the commission, despite several demands to do so.

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