Honourable Principal Judge of the Courts of Judicature of the Republic of Uganda, Lady Justice Jane Frances Abodo
PROMOTING PEOPLE-CENTRED, INCLUSIVE AND RESPONSIVE CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEMS IN A WORLD OF CONTINUOUS CHANGE
Madam/Mr. President, Distinguished Delegates,
Uganda aligns itself with the statement of the African Group.
The theme of this Congress resonates deeply with Uganda’s justice transformation agenda. For us, justice is measured not by the strength of any single institution, but by whether people experience it – across the whole justice chain – as accessible, fair, timely, and responsive to their everyday realities.
Uganda’s Justice, Law and Order Sector brings together the Judiciary, the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions, the Uganda Police Force, the Uganda Prisons Service and 28 other institutions around one shared goal: Justice for All, removing barriers that keep people from justice, particularly for the 1.7 million refugees Uganda hosts, 81% of them women and children.
Technology is advancing across this sector in the human-rights-grounded, accountable manner this Congress’s own paper calls for: the Judiciary’s Electronic Court Case Management Information System is digitising the case lifecycle, Police are investing in CCTV, forensics and digital crime-tracking, the ODPP has modernised public access through a dedicated Call Centre, and audio-visual link facilities, now extended to prisons such as Luzira, let vulnerable witnesses testify safely and enable remote remand hearings.
We are matching this with people. The Judiciary is filling 122 judicial posts; the ODPP has sworn in new State Attorneys and promoted over a hundred prosecutors against a staffing gap it fills at under half strength; and Police have deployed a Sub-County Policing Model to strengthen grassroots response. Mobile courts, run jointly by these institutions, continue reaching refugee settlements and underserved districts.
Our Prosecution-Guided Investigations Guidelines now bind police and prosecutors into a single, evidence-based process.
In line with this Congress’s own call for evidence-based, data-driven reform, the results span the chain: our Judiciary completed over 266,000 cases in a recent reporting year, our prosecution conviction rate has strengthened, Police recorded a 10.2% drop in reported crime in 2025, and our most recent Justice Needs Survey found 69% of Ugandans now rate resolution of their justice problems as fair, up from 47% in 2020.
Madam/Mr. President, our collective ambition should be justice systems that do not merely respond to change, but anticipate and adapt to it. For Uganda, that means every person can say: justice is accessible to me, my rights matter, my voice is heard, my dignity is protected, and when I seek justice, the system responds.
That is the standard we hold ourselves to. I thank you. Date: 29th September 2026 | Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates