Judiciary of Seychelles launches new website |12 March 2020

The home page of the judiciary website (Photo: Jude Morel)

The judiciary of Seychelles officially launched their website on Tuesday morning at the Palais de Justice, Ile du Port in a small ceremony where judicial workers and the media were given a rundown of the website.

“An independent and impartial judiciary is a cornerstone of the rule of law and of a democratic country. It serves to protect human rights and people’s liberties, provides a check on the other branches of government and helps secure an environment conducive to economic growth and social progress,” said Chief Justice Mathilda Twomey.

She added that the judiciary’s ability to achieve this depends on ensuring the judiciary is itself accountable. This is in part achieved by ensuring broad access to judicial information. The ability to monitor the advancement of the proceedings, access to good quality database, and the availability of public version of judgements ensures public awareness and scrutiny, and enhances the accountability of the whole judicial system.

“The judiciary of Seychelles strongly supports the principle of open justice, and has always subscribed to this principle. The passing of Access to Information Act in 2018 represents Seychelles’ commitment to ensuring transparency and accountability,” said the chief justice.

The law library has also been renamed after the late justice Andre Sauzier and Chief Justice Twomey said the decision for this was to honour Mr Sauzier’s unwavering commitment to the rule of law, independence and justice.

The Tony Angelo reading room, named after Professor Tony Angelo who has been an indispensable resource to the judiciary was also officially opened yesterday in his presence.

Alan Wallis, director for legal affairs in the Office of the Chief Justice, presented the website and noted that it will have a number of features that will benefit judges, lawyers and the general public.

Some of these feature include access to ongoing cases as well as closed ones, information about courts and jurisdiction as well as information and background about the judges, lawyers, and all the practice direction will be available in a single place.

Christophe Zialor