By Brendan Sweeney
“The course has been very helpful,” said Mr Ford Chombo, a Deputy Registrar, who was one of the 18 Zambians participating on the course. “In the first place it helps to widen the box from which you draw your experiences. I am from the judiciary. However, the approach taken in the course was looking at justice not only from the point of view of the institution you are working in but also from the point of view of the other actors, something which I found very useful.”
The course, which was organised jointly by the Education and the Access to Justice departments at DIHR, was divided into seven separate modules on topics ranging from the Danish justice system to mediation and informal justice as well as modules on prisons and the police.
The 18 participants included the Chief Admistrator of the Judiciary, Mr Peter Mwamfulu, the Zambian Commissioner of Prisons, Mr Gibbie Namakando Nawa, and the Chief State Advocate, Mr James Mwawakatwe in addition to high-level administrators, state advocates and legal counsellors from the Zambian Legal Aid Board.
During the course, participants visited the Danish parliament and ombudsman, a Danish district court and court administration office, a prison and the Danish Police Academy and heard presentations from a diverse group of professionals working within the Danish justice system including: a Danish district judge, a court administrator, a prison and probation commissioner and a prosecutor.
“The course was useful because so many high ranking senior civil servants were participating. If someone had simply reported back to Zambia this wouldn’t have had the same impact. If you hear the practical details of how to implement a particular project you tend to have the same focus and can internalise what is being taught to you,” said Mr Ford Chombo, who acted as a spokesman for the participants.
“In that sense it was not just coming to Denmark that was important. It was seeing how the Danes implement their justice system and human rights. The Danish system has taught us not just about the cultural background but all the other factors that are important such as Denmark’s involvement with the EU and the European Court of Justice,” he added.
“You can see the successes and the failures of the Danish system when you are physically here because you are on the spot and there is more discussion. You can see the imperfections which will help us in Zambia to understand what pitfalls we can avoid,” concluded Mr Chombo.
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