From June 11 to June 13 2019 Rwanda hosted an International Conference on case Management System themed “The role of case management system for justice system integration, performance and country development”. This conference brought together about 150 participants from worldwide with the aim to learn from others’ best practices and sharing information about case management systems used across the countries for improvement of justice services delivery through technology. The participants were from countries’ national justice institutions, Rwandan Justice Sector institutions, Civil Society Organizations working in justice and international IT companies delivering systems development services.  

While welcoming the participants, Minister of State in charge of constitutional and legal affairs Evode Uwizeyimana in the Ministry of Justice emphasised on the role of Rwanda’s case management system IECMS and its contributions towards country’s development resulting from improved accessibility and affordability of justice services.

The conference was opened and chaired by Honorable Chief Justice Prof. Sam Rugege who emphasised on advantages brought about by the introduction of case management system in Rwanda especially on the reduction of case backlogs and elimination of paper work for judges.

Among the best practices shared by Rwanda on the case management system is the awards winning Integrated Electronic Case Management System – IECMS, a Justice Sector IT system used for cases filing, processing, administration, handling and management. The IECMS is used in Rwandan judicial chain from investigation to correctional services and so far has won the following two awards for being an innovative technology  solution for case management:  The “Top Ten Court Technology Solutions Award” at the joint conference of the National Association of Court Administrators and the International Association of Court Administrators on July 13, 2017, in Washington, DC, USA and the “International gold trophy for most innovative technology for development” awarded by AAPAM (African Association for Public Administration and Management) in March 2016, in Lusaka, Zambia.

Subjects like e-governance and evolution of case management in Rwandan, digital innovation and ICT policy, laws and regulations, cybersecurity in justice system, artificial intelligence in case management and the use of electronic bracelet as an alternative to imprisonment in Rwanda justice system, live demo of IECMS among others were discussed.

After a live demonstration of Integrated Electronic Case Management System, participants applauded   Rwanda for introducing the system bearing in mind its several advantages and contributions towards better justice service delivery.

While closing the conference, Honorable Minister of ICT and innovation called upon participant countries to embrace the use of ICT in justice service delivery as it has proven to contribute to the country’s development through speeding up court cases, increasing quality of court decisions, reducing corruption and saving citizens’ time and money previously wasted while following up on the court case physically and rather invest it in other developmental work.  She mentioned that there is no “One size fits all” solution in IT and hence called upon participating countries to continue learning from each other for future developments in case management system.