| Overview : Strengthening access to justice, rule of law and promoting human rights are cornerstones of UNDP’s work to achieve sustainable human development. The UNDP Pacific Office in Fiji is implementing projects as part of an overall programme in these areas including the Fiji Access to Justice Project. The Fiji Access to Justice Project supports access to justice for impoverished and vulnerable groups through empowering people to access legal rights and services through the relevant key justice institutions, in conjunction with strengthening those key justice institutions to undertake improved service delivery. Under the Fiji Access to Justice Project, to enhance institutional capacity of the Judicial Department for improved service delivery and facilitated responsiveness to the justice needs of impoverished and vulnerable groups, support is being provided for improvements to court technology including the establishment of a case management system. The Judicial Department currently operates several in house built manual case management and information management systems to support the operation of the court system in Fiji. However these rudimentary systems are increasingly facing challenges in supporting the processes and procedures for timely disposal of cases and in meeting the technological expectations of a range of stakeholders. The Judicial Department is now seeking to embark on a programme to automate court operations and have already undertaken the initial steps of exploring the range of options currently available for court technology such as the potential benefits of the introduction of e-filing and integrated court management systems. Consequently Judicial leadership, along with the judges and magistrates who administer the courts and in conjunction with the court administration team, are now fully committed to the value of automating court operations and the expected benefits to deliver access to justice. However noting both the positive and negative experiences from other countries when introducing court automation including e-justice systems, the Judicial Department wish to carefully consider the next steps through the development of a comprehensive Court Technology Strategy. The Court Technology Strategy is to encompass an innovative approach to harness modern technology, be forward thinking incorporating principles for successful change management, be well informed by experiences and best practice from other jurisdictions, be fully situated in and specific to the Fijian context and the identified priority needs, be pragmatic with a focus on longer term sustainability, and of the upmost importance, be fully focused on an end result that will improve the responsiveness and service delivery of the Judicial Department. The Court Technology Strategy will include three components. First, identification of key priorities and needs related to court operations and potential solutions, including automating court operations, combined with a review and analysis of the current case management and other information management systems and processes, linking both to the International Framework for Court Excellence, and provide recommendations for a range of improvements. Second, following consultation with the Judicial Department and other stakeholders and based on the selected recommendations, a full range of costed options incorporating a thorough analysis of issues related to each option such as resource. Equipment and training requirements, implementation realities and specifics on sustainability aspects. Third, following the identification by Judicial Department of the preferred options, the Court Technology Strategy will include a detailed implementation plan also incorporating the plans for the conduct of a pilot initiative. The purpose of this Consultancy is to produce the Court Technology Strategy. |
