A focus on judicial independence

Leading members of the judiciary across Africa will be gathering at the Southern Sun Cape Sun Hotel in Cape Town from 2 – 6 June 2019. This gathering will focus on judicial independence - with a particular focus on conditions of service, a crucial issue challenging judges across the continent.

Judicial officers from at least 23 countries are to take part in the conference, paying close attention to the multi-faceted issues around judicial independence.

Themed ‘Safeguarding the independence and conditions of service of judicial officers’, the conference is organised  by the Judicial Officers Association of South Africa (JOASA) and UCT Law's Democratic Governance and Rights Unit (DGRU). It brings together the Africa regional bloc of the International Association of Judges (IAJ), represented at the conference by a few of the IAJ's top officials.

Commenting on the conference the President of JOASA, Daniel Thulare (senior South African magistrate), said “The conference is crucial in that it will submit a conference report about the state of affairs in Africa to the IAJ at its world meeting in September in Kazakhstan. These reports, from Africa and the other continental blocs, will then be used as the basis for lobbying and research.”

For those interested in more information, there are a number of sources:

1. contact Alison Tilley +27 71 671 8654
2. contact Joy Marjawar for press enquiries
3. go to the IAJ website
4. follow the conference Live Stream of most of the sessions at the conference on the DGRU facebook page, as well as on the DGRU YouTube Channel
5. follow DGRU on Twitter @DGRU_
6. follow the twitter conversation using #IAJ2019