After workshops held in August 2022, October 2022 and May 2023, the Max Planck Foundation continued to support the mandate of the Judicial Reform Committee of South Sudan (JRC) with a two-day workshop on the topic of Alternative Dispute Resolution, which took place in Juba from 20 to 21 July 2023.
After opening remarks by the Foundation’s Managing Director and Head of Sub-Saharan Africa Projects and the Chairperson of the JRC, Hon. Justice James Ogoola, the workshop was officially opened by the Chief Justice of South Sudan, Rt. Hon. Justice Chan Reec Madut. The Deputy Chairperson of the JRC, Hon. Lady Justice Joyce Aluoch, the members of the JRC as well as the JRC Secretariat and representatives from the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) were also present during the workshop.
The workshop was facilitated by the Foundation’s legal experts and started with an introduction to Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) as well as an overview of the existing South Sudanese legal framework with respect to mechanisms of ADR. Subsequent sessions explored the concepts and principles of mediation and arbitration by also taking an in-depth look at comparative regulatory frameworks in selected African legal systems. On the second day, the participants were introduced to the use of ADR mechanisms in selected disputes in different African legal systems before ending the workshop with a working session. This working session allowed the members of the JRC to reflect on the challenges arising from the existing dispute resolution mechanisms in South Sudan and to explore options for the promotion and use of ADR mechanisms.
The workshop was implemented with the generous financial assistance of the European Union within the framework of the project ‘Supporting Constitution-Making, Legal Harmonisation and Judicial Reform in South Sudan‘.