Ministry of Justice/ Prompt Justice Key to Fair Judiciary

Doha, December 12 (QNA) - The Ministry of Justice handles the responsibility of the application of law and regulation the judicial movement in all courts of the State in addition to its most prominent role in resolving disputes between individuals, companies and institutions. In 2011-2012 has witnessed achievements and contributions of the Ministry of Justice and its various departments. The State Lawsuits Department at the Ministry represented the state ministries and other government institutions and public bodies 2011-2012 with more than (1500) lawsuits mostly relating to construction contracts, land and property disputes, expropriation and other claims issues, and issues relating to the civil service and administrative decisions. The Department has exercised the role required of it effectively and managed to get a lot of court rulings in favor of the state bodies in nearly (400) lawsuits so far, and it is continuing to follow the rest of the proceedings until the final judgments. Under the Law No. (7) for 2007 on the disposition of administrative disputes, the State Lawsuits Department expanded the terms of reference to be responsible to plead in this type of lawsuits as it represents the government bodies and public institutions. Accordingly, the Department took the necessary procedures to deal with this type of lawsuits including the rehabilitation of its staff and the preparation of efficient legal cadres. The Department adopted new working methods to improve its performance through an integrated computer program to facilitate the follow-up the lawsuits, as well as the development of cadres and improving their level of performance through a number of training courses and seminars. The center for the protection of intellectual property rights at the Ministry also accomplished a number of achievements during the year 2011/2012, including the accession to Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT), the signing of a memorandum of understanding with the World Intellectual Property "WIPO" and the participation in the implementation of the GCC long-term overall development strategy in the field of intellectual property and patents. The center also issued (96) copyright certificates and referred (34) issues of infringement of the intellectual property rights to the competent courts. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Justice inaugurated the "Hotline" service on 15 January 2012 to serve and communicate with the public. The importance service receives questions, concerns and complaints from the public via the ministry's website or through phone calls. The ministry is also working on spreading legal awareness through various media in order to build a society conscious of their rights and legal duties. The Ministry of Justice plans to implement a number of projects in the future including: the electronic archiving project, the establishment of the airport office, the establishment of Muaither office, legal awareness project, the development of Al-Shamal office in addition to a number of public services. In the near future, the Ministry is planning to open two offices for documentation services in Muaither and the Old Airport area, raise the legal awareness through modern print and audio-visual media and develop e-portal projects through ipad and iphone applications, and others. In 2011-2012, the Ministry of Justice held several training courses, issued three editions of the legal magazine and organized several legal seminars and meetings. (QNA)