Justice close to home

By Meas Bunly

For more than ten years, Meas Pov has served as a Commune Councilor in Tang Kcha village of the western province of Kompong Speu. She is in charge of children and women's issues, domestic violence, and land conflicts.

One thing that she never forgot to do whenever she handled a case was to advise villagers to end their disputes through conciliations and not bring them up to the provincial court. Her only concern was that villagers would end up spending a lot of money to travel on a bumpy 40-kilometer road to the court, which is the only court in town, to seek solutions whereas their problems could be solved at the commune level.

Pov's advice was not very effective in convincing the villagers because she had no authority to pass judgment on any case. But they actually asked her where they should go if provincial court was not the option. Pov never had a clear answer.

Until July this year when the Ministry of Justice in cooperation with the Ministry of Interior and with support from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) established Justice Centers in Kompong Speu's Korng Pisey and Phnom Srouch districts that people fully understood that their disputes could also be settled locally.

The center serves as a mediating and consulting office to which people can refer when they need solutions to the conflicts which occur quite often in their daily lives. Each center is managed by a director with legal qualifications and expertise assigned by the Ministry of Justice and their assistant is appointed by the Ministry of Interior. Officers in the center provide legal consultations to the villagers and suggest possible ways to settle their problems.

Simultaneously, two centers were also opened in Teouk Phos and Kompong Leng districts of Kompong Chhnang.

UNDP Access to Justice Project Manager Koy Neam considers the approach as a tool adopted from Cambodian traditions. He recalls that villagers always seek help from people close to them such as village chiefs, monks, and commune councilors.

‘If farmers argue with each other over tree ownership, for example, going to the provincial court is not a good option. They should get solutions locally, and this is the reason the Justice Canters are set up close to them, so that they can better serve the local people,' he said.

By the end of the year, the center will train Commune Councilors on conflict resolution techniques and educate them on laws such as domestic violence, land, forestry and fishery. These laws are very useful in tackling the frequent cases heard at village level.

For Meas Pov, the justice center provides her an answer she was always looking for. Now she knows clearly about what she should tell her villagers.

‘Justice Center is a place where small cases are heard and mediated,' she said confidently.

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