A court service can move online and still remain out of reach. That is the central warning in HiiL’s new report, E-justice and Support Measures: Best Practices and Challenges in East and West Africa. Across the continent, courts and justice institutions are testing digital case management, online legal information, virtual hearings and electronic document requests. These tools can reduce delays, lower costs and make services easier to access. But is access to e-justice itself accessible?
The report responds to a practical challenge in Burkina Faso. In areas affected by insecurity, reaching a court can be difficult, expensive, or impossible. Digital tools could help people obtain legal information, request documents, follow cases, or attend hearings without travelling long distances. Yet digitalisation can also create new exclusion. People without smartphones, reliable internet, electricity, literacy, digital skills, or trust in formal institutions may find yet another hurdle to climb.
Drawing on examples from Rwanda, Tanzania, Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire, Senegal and Benin, it asks what makes e-justice work in practice. The answer is not only better software. It is support: trained people, accessible places, low-tech options, public awareness and long-term ownership.
Key findings include:
- Digitalisation is not enough. Supporting measures are essential to ensuring access to justice. A people-centred approach focuses on achieving better outcomes for justice users rather than merely digitalising existing bureaucratic processes.
- Pilots need a future. E-justice initiatives require public ownership, financing and maintenance if they are to last. Public-private partnerships, build-operate-transfer models and trained agents can help guarantee long-term financial sustainability.
- Institutions need capacity and infrastructure. Judges, court staff, lawyers and intermediaries need training and reliable infrastructure, not only new systems.
- Physical access points can help bridge the digital divide. Agents, help centres, mobile courts, telecentres, university clinics and community access points can turn digital tools into real access.
- Low-tech options matter. USSD, IVR, offline applications, solar-powered equipment and local-language tools can reach those otherwise inaccessible populations.
- The digital divide is a justice issue. Women, rural communities, displaced people, people with disabilities and people with lower levels of education are often least equipped to use online services. Providing digital skills to enhance their knowledge and ability to use technology is essential.
- Cyber security and data protection build trust. Digital systems must adhere to due process and ensure legal compliance while also maximizing transparency. n
What to learn from other countries:
The report makes clear that the most effective e-justice systems are not necessarily the most technologically advanced, but the ones designed around how people actually access services. Rwanda, often cited as a leading example of justice digitalisation, illustrates this well. Its electronic case management system and digital public service platform have improved efficiency and transparency, yet their success has depended just as much on investments in public awareness, digital literacy, and agent-assisted access as on the technology itself. In practice, this means that digital inclusion has required human mediation. This lesson becomes even more important in settings where infrastructure remains fragile. In Tanzania, mobile courts and Integrated Justice Centres demonstrate the value of hybrid approaches that bring justice services directly to underserved communities. Equipped with solar power, digital tools, and offline storage, these models show that digital justice does not always mean fully online systems. In many contexts, resilience depends on combining digital innovation with physical outreach. Benin reinforces this finding from another angle. Its Digital Community Hubs provide not only internet access and digital tools, but also guidance, training, and support for navigating online public services. Benin’s success points to a broader conclusion running through the report: access to digital justice often depends on trusted physical spaces where people can ask questions, build confidence, and receive assistance.
Improving accessibility begins by examining the core needs of the people
The broader conversation on justice reform often focuses heavily on efficiency. This is understandable. Courts across the continent face growing caseloads, limited resources, and rising public expectations. But efficiency alone is too narrow a benchmark. A justice system that processes cases faster but remains inaccessible to large parts of the population cannot be considered people-centred. The starting point should therefore not be technology itself, but people’s lived justice journeys. What legal problems are they trying to solve? What devices do they use? Which languages do they speak? Whom do they trust? HiiL’s report ultimately argues that digital justice can create new pathways to justice, particularly in contexts shaped by insecurity and distance. But these pathways only become meaningful when they are supported by inclusive design, trusted intermediaries, and sustained public investment. Technology can strengthen justice delivery, but it cannot replace the human systems that make justice truly accessible.
Read the report here
