All non-professional magistrates, grade two magistrates or court chairmen, who are not professional lawyers will stop working for the Judicial Service when the Court Amendment Bill becomes a law.
Mr Justice Edward Kwame Wiredu, the Chief Justice who announced this on Friday said the panel system of trying cases would also stop very soon except at the Family Tribunal and Juvenile Courts, when the Courts Amendment Bill receives a Presidential assent.
He was opening a two-day workshop in Accra, on the rights of children for more than 30 magistrates in the Southern Sector as part of the continuing education in the Judicial Service. It was organised by the African Society of International and Comparative Law and the Ghana Judicial Service with sponsorship from the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF).
Mr Justice Wiredu said with the cessation of the panel system of trying cases, the magistrate would sit alone, unless he sits at the Family Tribunal or Juvenile Courts adding, "this is indeed a return to the position before the introduction of the panel system in 1993".
He said until the date is announced the status quo would be maintained, but the lay magistrates "who have rented rooms, found schools for their wards and employment for their spouses in places where they work" should start arrangement to relocate when the need arises.
Mr Justice Wiredu told the participants; "it is obvious you may not have to start any complicated case that will inevitably take some time to complete. Ideally, efforts should be made to complete partly heard cases."
He, however, stressed that the Act does not do away with lay participation in the administration of justice in the country, adding: "We still retain lay participation in areas where opinion of non lawyers are beneficial in dispensing meaningful justice.
This is particularly the case with regard to matters affecting children."
The Chief Justice said in taking decisions on cases of custody and paternity, it was ideal to have inputs from people, who were parents or had greater interaction with children and were alive to their peculiar problems adding; "that explains why the panel system has been retained in respect of cases in Family Tribunal and Juvenile Courts."
Mrs Beatrice Duncan, Protection Officer of UNICEF, said Ghana was endowed with a considerable amount of legislation and conventions but the challenge was how to enforce them. She noted that with increasing levels of poverty, women and children were having it difficult to access the justice system.
"The relatively high cost of filing fees and the gnawing problem of delays in our court procedures discourage the common woman or child from initiating the court process," Mrs Duncan said.
Mrs Duncan said court attendants required a prospective applicant to possess enough financial resources for commuting to and from court in addition to remaining responsible for the servicing of their writs and called for mechanisms to ensure that indigent victims were not denied access to justice.
She reminded the Chief Justice of his prerogative under the Children's Act, which permitted him to waive part or all of the filing fees or other fees payable through Legislative Instrument.
Mrs Duncan expressed concern about the burden of proof placed especially upon child victims of abuse, saying "children as young as six years old have to undergo the rigours of cross-examination and re-examination in open court" and "prove beyond all reasonable doubt that they have been assaulted.
"Many counsels engage these children in heated debates over crimes committed by adults," she said, adding, "the children in their confusion do not speak, with the result that the cases are thrown out of court for want of prosecution." Mrs Duncan said initiation of prosecution of rape cases had also been delayed due to low staff levels and morale within the Attorney-General's Department.
She called for an inter agency co-operation and collaboration with agencies responsible for child protection, such as the medical services, the police, social welfare and prisons service and said there was the need to put in place a comprehensive networking system that would afford the agencies the opportunity to relate to each other.
