Much hope is being placed on the newly established family court system, reports Reem Leila Recently the new family court system opened its doors to trouble-stricken families. The courts are meant to specialise in cases involving family disputes. They will be run by a panel of three judges, with at least one woman judge amongst them. The court's primary mandate is protecting the welfare of the family, regardless of the nature of the family dispute being heard. Each family court will also host a sociologist and psychologist who will act as mediators and counsellors in order to encourage the harmonious resolution of family disputes. The mediation process will take place before the case is actually presented to the court, said MP Zeinab Radwan, a member of the National Council for Women (NCW). Radwan said the mediation period would take up to two weeks. If it was unsuccessful, a request would then by submitted to the mediator's office listing each party's demands. The case would then appear before the court in just one week's time. When mediation succeeds, Radwan said, "the terms of the agreement would be written in a legal format and added to the case file. These terms can then be enforced in the same way a court ruling would be enforced -- and no one can violate it." The People's Assembly approved the creation of the new courts six months ago, after the Justice Ministry, the NCW, and the mufti had also vetted it. The new courts will deal with everything from divorce to khul', child custody to alimony, as well as inter-family violence, and the annulment of marriages. Two-hundred-twenty-four existing personal status courts will host the new family courts until specially-designed courts are built. According to Serri Siam, assistant to the justice minister, a few businessmen have donated funds to build the new family courts. By the end of 2006, there will be one family court in Cairo, two in Giza, and one in Sharqiya. Each building will cost LE7 million to build. One-thousand-and-hundred-and-eight judges have been trained to head the new courts, as have 525 mohdarin, (civil servants who notify disputing parties) and 1625 sociological and psychological experts. The new courts are expected to save women, especially, a great deal of time, since all their cases will be heard by the same court. Thirty-one-year-old housewife Mona Ezzat Moussa, for one, said she had struggled within the various legal channels for over seven years, with "one court hearing my divorce case, another dealing with the alimony, and yet a third ruling in my custody case. The whole process was torture." Since mediators may also help resolve disputes amicably, couples may also end up saving money on extensive legal procedures. The new court system is also meant to speed up the legal process. Siam said that the 224 sentence enforcement offices at the new courts would be following up on cases to ensure that rulings are implemented within a reasonable time frame, so that justice is not delayed. "This will be more tangible in alimony cases, since women are facing lots of problems collecting alimony for themselves and their children," Siam said. Two weeks ago, 75,000 old personal status cases were transferred to the new family courts. On their first day of work, the North Cairo Court heard 765 cases, while the South Cairo Court listened to an additional 500. Eight new cases were submitted to the mediators' offices. The NCW's Kamal Abul-Magd, an eminent lawyer, said cases that had already begun their proceedings in the old system would not begin anew, but continue from where they had left off. He said that female law graduates would be trained as an initial step towards their becoming judges at the court. Abul-Magd also said there would be 715 family affairs prosecutors affiliated with the new courts, who will only be dealing with personal status matters. An NCW conference was recently held to introduce the new system. NCW President Mrs Suzanne Mubarak, the council's secretary-general Farkhonda Hassan, and other senior members attended the event. The council plans to issue a brochure explaining the Islamic rights and duties of men, women, and children. In the meantime, Radwan said, judges and mediators should be provided with ongoing training courses. According to the NCW's Mona Zulfiqar, two mediators are required to attend sessions at the new courts; if one is unable to attend for any reason, the session is postponed. Zulfiqar was critical of the requirement, saying it would result in extended, rather than shorter, legal procedures. Zulfiqar said the court, while aiming to be effective and expedient, would address emotional issues as well as legal disputes.
