Law forum hosts top Rwanda judge
Rwanda’s Chief Justice Prof Sam Rugege spoke on his country’s legal transformation at a Qatar Law Forum (QLF) event held at the London Muslim Centre.
Less than two decades after around 800,000 people were killed in the Rwandan genocide in a single year (1994), Prof Rugege delivered a message on the steps the country has taken to promote and observe the rule of law.
The QLF event, which is held under the patronage of HH the Emir, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, brings together legal luminaries from around the world to discuss the challenges of achieving a global commitment to the rule of law and related issues of international legal and economic significance.
In recognition of the need to move beyond dialogue and bring about change on the ground, the QLF co-ordinates a practical rule of law programme and Prof Rugege’s lecture was one among a series of events being held outside Qatar.
Justice is thriving in the East African republic now, with a new constitution, supreme court and a high court. These institutions are underpinned by high levels of public support for the rule of law and confidence in the judiciary.
“Justice was not in a good place - there was no respect for human rights and the rule of law. We started afresh,” said Prof Rugege.
The transformation started at the ground level, with a network of village ‘gacaca’ courts bringing together old enemies and providing community justice for the accused as well as the relatives of victims.
The West was concerned, said the chief justice, over the absence of lawyers and “judges without wigs”. These local courts processed 1.2mn cases and promoted reconciliation in the process - a new philosophy for a post-genocide society.
Nineteen years later, Rwanda has a highly-developed court system and infrastructure, with sophisticated judicial training and complaint systems. The chief justice said this has been most marked in the level of public confidence in the judiciary - the second highest rating in Africa, eclipsing a number of developed countries.
The basis of such confidence must be in large part due to Rwanda’s ‘zero tolerance’ of corruption. “Justice is not for sale,” Prof Rugege said, citing a culture where judges report bribes and the public is encouraged to act as whistleblowers if judges seek bribes.
The system is firmly enforced - judges are disciplined or dismissed if proven to have offended. In the wider society, there have been prison sentences for public officials found guilty of corruption.
Closing the event, Robin Knowles of the Qatar Law Forum said: “I have taken away two simple messages from this inspiring speech by the chief justice: hope and hopes realised.”
Karwa taxi driver is assaulted
A Karwa driver was attacked by two persons while he was buying a newspaper from a stand near the Central Bus Station on Tuesday afternoon. According to a witness, the assailants approached the Filipino driver from his behind and asked him about a certain route. “He told them to go to the information office . However, the men got angry and started to shout at him and hit him on his forehead causing him injury,” said the witness.
The off-duty driver wanted to defend himself but was overpowered by the two persons, who kept on punching him. Other passengers and drivers broke up the fight and eventually, the attackers and the victim were taken to the Smart Card office. The two attackers were arrested while the victim was transferred to Hamad Hospital for treatment.
Qatari eyewitness Nasser Mohamed al-Qahtani identified the attackers as two Arabic-speaking men, denouncing the incident as alien to Qatari culture and demanded more security presence at such crowded places to enforce public order.
Forum of women finance professionals to be launched
A new forum to enable women in senior roles within Qatar’s finance and accounting sector to meet and discuss key issues is being launched today to coincide with International Women’s Day.
The Qatar Women in Finance and Accounting forum (QWFA), is an initiative of ACCA (the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants) in the Middle East with the intention of providing a platform for female finance leaders to talk about a wide range of topics.
A working committee of members who hold high level finance jobs in leading organisations such as Qatar Petroleum, Ecovert Qatar, RasGas, Qatargas and global accounting firms Deloitte and Ernst & Young will meet in the next two weeks to discuss the QWFA’s objectives and look at potential future activities.
The forum is the brainchild of Deepa Chandrashekar, a senior finance professional at Qatar Petroleum.
Deepa said, “ Given there are a growing number of women working in senior and influential roles in finance and accountancy in Qatar, I thought that a forum would provide a welcome opportunity for their voices to be heard on a range of critical issues. I very much look forward to meeting with a range of outstanding female finance professionals in the coming months to look at a number of key subjects – and I am sure that our discussions will make a real contribution to the future success of the finance profession in our country.”
Ritu Nanda, head of Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (Oman and Qatar), said: “We are delighted to help develop Deepa’s idea and provide a forum where female finance professionals could discuss a range of issues, bringing different perspectives to a number of subjects. It is fitting that we have been able to launch this forum on International Women’s Day, which marks the economic, political and social achievements of women. ACCA looks forward to participating in the forum and to supporting its work and activities in future.”
To ensure the debate continues across the Middle East, ACCA will also be hosting a networking event for women in finance and accounting in the UAE in June.
This follows on from a roundtable organised by ACCA in Dubai last year, which highlighted the need for a more flexible approach to working in order to ensure that the number of women in leadership positions is able to grow, and from a networking event held for female finance professionals in June 2012.
‘35% of Qatari women took up job in 2012’
Around 35% of Qatari women took part in the different economic activities in the country in 2012, according to a survey of the Qatar Statistics Authority (QSA).
Most of those worked in the government sector - 73% - with 51% of them working in specialised jobs, mostly at public administration, health and education. The overall number of the economically active women was 172,000 with women representing 51% of the total economic participation.
In the meantime, a Qatar woman has managed to win a seat at the Central Municipal Council (CMC) since 2003 and the situation remained unchanged until now.
Qatari female lawyers formed 13.7% of the total number of Qatari lawyers in 2011. The first Qatari woman who took up a lawyer’s job started work in 2000, while in 2010, Qatari women joined the judiciary, with two of them as judges and assistant judge in 2011.
