CJ Twomey completes five years in office |29 September 2020
CJ Twomey with her team (Photo: Thomas Meriton)
During her tenure between August 2015 and September 2020, Chief Justice Mathilda Twomey has judged over 17% of more than 8000 cases before the Supreme Court (Civil and Criminal) and the Court of Appeal.
In the Supreme Court she has judged 50 out of 866 criminal cases and 1163 out of 6212 civil cases.
In the Court of Appeal CJ Twomey has heard 69 criminal and 76 civil cases.
In total 8386 cases were heard in the different courts during her five-year tenure.
As the CJ completes her five years in office, she along with other members of management within her office met with the press yesterday at the Palais de Justice at Ile du Port to talk about the Judiciary’s work and achievements over the five years.
To date, the backlog has been reduced and the Judiciary has put in place a proper case management system.
CJ Twomey noted that “the Judiciary is not a one-man show. It is a team of persons who make the institution work. I am very proud that our team was able to reducing backlog and the cases in the system, speeding up the efficiency within the Judiciary and ensuring that it is more accessible, accountable and fit for purpose. My message for the staff of the Judiciary is that we are here to serve the people. Justice does not belong to us only. It is for all of us and we need to open the Court’s doors to receive the people of Seychelles. This is one of my biggest achievements and I believe I did my best to make this happen. Secondly, during my tenure, I seized the opportunity to promote women’s right. My aim was to show to our Seychellois women that they are not here to stay in the shadows of men. They are here to have the same rights and opportunities and they need to reclaim their rights. These are the two things I am proud of.”
CJ Twomey also noted that the same two biggest achievements were also her biggest challenges. “When I came in 2015, I inherited a big backlog. Some cases dated back some nine years and there was even a case that dated back 19 years. My biggest challenge was to make the lawyers and judges understand that it was unacceptable to have a case dragging so long and make a person pay all the fees. The second challenge was as the first female CJ, there were accusations and defamations levelled against me that would never happen if the CJ was a male. After some time, I chose my own battles and did my job. Now I want people to understand that I did my job as a CJ not as a woman.”
“There is no challenge that you cannot overcome. We work as a whole and the challenges we face, we face together. Any personal attack/criticism on a particular person is taken as a body hit and is responded to in unity by the whole of the Judiciary. Yes there has been some personal attacks made on me, but I did not find these attacks important. The attacks I found important are the ones made against the Judiciary. I think the office of the Judiciary remains a strong structure and no one can shut it down. I am giving the public the assurance that the Judiciary will function as efficiently as it has started to do.”
“As a human being, at the end of the day I am a mother, a partner and a sister. Personal unfounded accusations hurt not only me but my family and my friends. I recognise that I am a vulnerable person like anybody else. We have blood running through our veins too like any human being. But today we are celebrating our achievements over the last five years. We will not let any of our vulnerabilities distract us from our job,” concluded CJ Twomey.
After stepping down, CJ Twomey will continue her work on the Court of Appeal and as an educator to the judges and students.
“I recently accepted the post of assistant Professor in the University of Ireland and I was also appointed as the Academic director of the Judicial Institute for Africa. This will be for my personal benefits to further my legal knowledge.”
However, CJ Twomey will still have Seychelles as her ‘home’ for now.
Also present during the meeting with the press yesterday were Joelle Barnes, legal research; Juliana Esticot, Registrar’s office; Nichole Mathurin, head of human resources; Benjamin Vipin, senior magistrate and Kevin Cummings from the library and archives.
Seychelles NATION will come back on the press meet in a future edition.
Vidya Gappy