Towards a Human Rights-based Approach to Acccess to Justice Teachnologies in Uganda : The Role of Duty bearers

Abstract

The evolution of technology is gradually transforming the justice sector and the justice systems around the world are moving away from the old paper-based procedures towards technologies. This transition is a faster pace redefining how the courts, lawyers, and, legal service providers (LSPs) deliver justice. The outbreak of COVID-19 was a golden opportunity for this. In Uganda, as the case study for this mini-dissertation, the negative impact of COVID-19 led to the declaration of lockdown and closure of public offices few courts were digitalised enough to cope with the world of COVID-19, where social distancing, remote working, and electronic exchange of documents were required. The foregoing led to the issuance of guidelines for online hearings and online judgment delivery in Uganda. Besides the courtrooms, law firms, Civil Society Organisations, and Non-Governmental Organisations that were equally closed resorted to delivering justice through technologies and this was an opportunity for Uganda to adopt the wide use of access to justice technologies.

However, the deployment of technology as an alternative means could not provide effective access to justice for all. Coupled with the increased financing that provided seed funding to socio-legal start-ups challenges came when donors failed to assess the human rights conformity of the technologies they fund; most access to justice technologies were developed and deployed in urban areas without the input of rights-holders and the legal innovators paid attention to business growth, meeting the interest of donors and gaining huge online followers instead of focusing on the consequential impact of the technologies on access to justice. With such trends, no one seems to question concretely the amount of justice needs that have been effectively resolved or adjudicated to the satisfaction of litigants using technologies. It is against this background that this mini-dissertation bends towards a human rights-based approach (HRBA) to examine whether the duty bearers’ role in deploying access to justice technologies can ensure effective access to justice for all in Uganda.

Using the desktop methodology, this study responds to the sub-questions in five chapters. Chapter one introduces the study while chapter two analyses the conceptual basis for HRBA to access to justice technologies in Uganda. Chapter three discusses the legal frameworks, duty-bearers’ obligations, and how they can ensure a HRBA to access to justice technologies in Uganda. Chapter four analyses how the duty-bearers in the UK and Nigeria fare in ensuring a HRBA to access to justice technologies in comparison to Uganda and the lessons that Uganda can draw from the UK and Nigeria. The fifth chapter summarises the mini-dissertation and recommended that Uganda duty-bearers should ensure effective legislation, deployment, and practices on access to justice technologies. It concludes that for Uganda to ensure HRBA to access to justice technologies, duty-bearers must place human rights principles at the core of their roles.