KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - Members of Kandahar's small cadre of judges are fanning out across the province to educate villagers about Afghanistan's rule of law and encourage them to solve minor disputes locally, rather than bringing them to the city's overburdened courts.
Canada's top diplomat in Kandahar, Elissa Golberg, said the move is needed because a glut of cases and a shortage of judges has brought the province's justice system to a standstill.
"The challenge that we face in the justice system is about having sufficient justices and sufficient numbers of prosecutors, actually having enough people ... so that justice can actually occur in a timely way," said Golberg, the Representative of Canada in Kandahar.
"We have six (judges) who can't possibly keep up with all the cases that need to be kept up with in order to ensure that the system actually functions effectively."
The length of time before they have their day in court frustrates many Kandaharis. There are also long-standing complaints that the Afghan justice system is rife with bribery and graft.
There is also the matter of convincing Afghan villagers that it can function as a credible alternative to the informal system of Taliban justice that many say prevails in parts of the province.
In towns such as Senjaray, west of Kandahar city in the district of Zhari, tribunals of roaming Taliban religious leaders act as judges, meting out punishments that range from public humiliations to executions.
Three Senjaray farmers recently interviewed by The Canadian Press said some locals prefer the Taliban's hardline justice to what they see as Kandahar's slow and corrupt legal system.
"You need money for everything," farmer Haji Mohammed, 45, said of the province's court system. Even when the wheels are sufficiently greased, rulings can still take a long time, he added.
Golberg acknowledged the complaints about corruption, and said Canadian officials have spent "a number of months" studying Kandahar's justice system, looking at what works and what doesn't.
"We've now been trying to work with different partners ... to deal, concretely, with some of those issues, which will, in turn deal with some of the concerns about bribery, corruption, etc., etc.," she said.
"It's one thing for us to be focusing on improving the capacity of the ANP (Afghan National Police), focusing on enhancing the corrections system ... but you've also got to make sure that the actual pursuit of the final piece of the puzzle -- justice -- also functions effectively."
Canadian officials and Kandahari judges have held workshops across the province to explain the legal system to district elders, police chiefs and members of local shuras, or village councils.
There's talk of supplementing the formal system of Kandahar city's courtrooms with informal justice, in which elders settle disputes between family members or tribal rivals, Golberg said. However, big cases will still be heard in Kandahar city.
Golberg likened the informal approach to some forms of Aboriginal justice in Canada.
"There is a role for that kind of approach on specific kinds of issues," she said.
"The key for the Afghans is to figure out when are they comfortable using informal process, and when will they prefer to use the formal systems of justice."
