AFBA Commends Malawi for upholding the rule of law

The African Bar Association, a Professional Board of Lawyers and National Legal Association in Africa has commended Malawi saying the country is doing well in upholding the rule of law, respect for human rights and good governance.

President for the Board, Hanibal Uwaifo made the remarks in Lilongwe on Saturday during a press conference ahead of the annual conference to be held in Malawi from August 8tm to 11, 2022.

Hundreds of Legal minds and people from other professions are expected to converge in Lilongwe where they will discuss issues around human rights, rule of law, good governance, elections, human trafficking and hurdles that Citizens face when accessing justice and how individual countries in Africa are faring.

The 2022 Annual Conference of the Association coming up at the Bingu International Conference Center, Lilongwe, Republic of Malawi.

This is another opportunity for Lawyers, Judges, Politicians, the Business community and experts from all fields of endeavor to gather dissect and proffer solutions to the myriad of challenges confronting Africa especially good transparent governance, security and the rule of law.

In his remarks, Uwaifo said Malawi has a good record in the terms of good governance, rule of law, respect for human rights and he has urged other countries to emulate on Malawi’s actions fie socio-economic development.

“We all know Malawi has a good history of good governance, rule of law, respect for human. All people from Uganda, South Africa, Tanzania will gather here in Malawi because there are records of good governance.

“The government is good in promoting democracy and I don’t see any conflict between the legal profession and the government, ” said Uwaifo.

Minister of Justice and Constitutional Affairs, Titus Mvalo said Malawi is currently decentralising the legal aid bureau into district councils to accord citizens from rural who cannot afford a lawyer get legal representation.

“In Malawi we have embarked on decentralising the legal aid bureau and its currently at district level. The idea being that people in rural areas should be able to access lawyers so that when they go to court they should get the representatives,” said Mvalo.

He added that Malawinis working hand in hand with European Union in building courts in rural areas.

“We inconjunction with EU, are have a project called Chilungamo project which will help us building courts in rural areas,” added Mvalo.

Apart from legal practitioners, the Confedence will also he attended by senior officials fro immigration, Police, Prison, and the Malawi Defence Force.

Meanwhile, the National Bank has sponsored the African Bar Association Conference with K5.1 Million Kwacha through the Malawi Law Society.

President for the Malawi Law Society, Patrick Gray Mpaka has commended the Financial institution for the gesture.

“We have opted to pump in the money because its a big occasion. For us to hold such big event, it requires us to have alot of money, and we had to approach our colleagues from the National Bank in to assist us and they have responded it quite well. This is a good development,” said Mpaka.

On February 23, 2022 The President of the African Bar Association (AfBA ) -Hannibal Uwaifo Esq constituted a High Powered Conference Planning Committee for this year’s International Planning Conference with the Solicitor General of Liberia , as the Chairman of the Planning Committee .

The President also named other Nigerian Lawyers , to wit : Professor Edoba Bright Omoregie SAN as the Administrator of Conference, Dr Samson Osagie , the Chairman of the Nigerian Forum
,Mimi Ayua ,Ifueko Ize-Iyamu Blessing Agbomenre and Douglas Ogbankwa Esq.

The President of the AfBA at the Inauguration, also named Douglas Ogbankwa Esq , as the Director of Strategic Communications of the African Bar Association , to drive the Publicity Module of the Association using strategic and novel models in driving the Publicity verve of the African Bar Association.
Douglas Ogbankwa Esq., a Veteran of the Publicity System of the Legal Profession of Nigeria is the immediate Past Publicity Secretary of the Nigerian Bar Association, Benin Branch ,the Lion Bar , the current Publicity Secretary of the Midwest Bar Forum , a Member of the NBA National Editorial Committee , a Member of the NBA College of Reppateurs , the Chairman of the NBA Benin Bar Police Monitoring Committee and the Founder of the Benin Writers’ Society.

African Bar Association was Established in 1971 as a professional body uniting individual lawyers and national legal associations in Africa, the African Bar Association (AFBA) was designed to be a federation of national legal associations, corporate and unincorporated legal entities, and individual lawyers.