APA – Kigali (Rwanda) – Rwanda and Singapore have called for strengthening legal and judicial cooperation, local media reported Thursday quoting an authoritative source.
Reports indicate that Rwanda’s Chief Justice, Faustin Ntezilyayo held bilateral talks with his Singaporean counterpart Sundaresh Menon and visited the Singapore Management University’s Yong Pung How School of Law.
Rwanda and Singapore have a couple of partnerships in the judicial sector. In 2021, the supreme courts of the two countries signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on judicial cooperation aimed at, among other things, enhancing cooperation and promoting the efficient administration of justice in their respective jurisdictions.
The MoU provides for exchange of experiences and discussions on matters of common interest. It also lays the foundation for cooperation between the two parties in areas such as electronic case management system and administration, court-annexed mediation and out-of-court mediation, small claims procedures, and capacity building through online and face-to-face training.
Ntezilyayo noted that the cooperation between the two countries’ judiciaries is bringing about benefits for Rwanda, including different training sessions in which Rwandan judicial officials participated in Singapore, that are aimed at improving the administration of justice in our countries.
“The knowledge and expertise shared during these sessions have played a vital role in enhancing the competence and professionalism of our legal practitioners and judicial officers,” he said.
He pointed out some of the things that his team hopes to learn from Singapore, including how the specialist courts of the country work. The Asian country has specialist courts including the Singapore International Commercial Court; Family Justice Courts, and so on.
CU/abj/APA