Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace (CCJP) through its Primary Justice Project on Tuesday trained 58 tribunals in the areas of Traditional Authorities Kanduku and Nthache in Mwanza on the concept of primary justice, gender based violence and human rights issues.

Primary Justice Project Officer, Anastanzio Matewere said the project trained 47 traditional leaders in T/A Kanduku whilst other 11 local leaders in T/A Nthache were equipped with skills that would help them handle cases at local level.

He explained that village heads have a critical role in implementing the primary justice concept as they are at the center of delivering justice at community level saying as such, they needed to have knowledge on how to handle cases effectively.

“Chiefs are taken as tribunals who are supposed to administer cases. However, they just inherited the chieftaincy without being trained on how to execute their work. So, this training was organized to equip them with necessary skills that would help them execute their duties effectively,” he said.

Matewere said the project is advocating for women inclusion in all its activities so that issues that pose a great challenge to women are ably sorted out by their fellow women.

“We want female arbitrators because they understand better cases that have gender perspective.  For example, a pregnancy case could effectively be dealt with by female tribunals,” he said.