government is undertaking measures to build the capacity of the police to combat trafficking and cross-border crime in cooperation with neighbouring countries. Mozambique is a member of Interpol, and SADC heads of police are collaborating with Interpol on this issue. Access to Justice 319. Access to justice is fundamental in protecting citizens’ human rights and the courts are vanguards of these rights. In this regard, it is important for courts to be objective and efficient arbiters, and for citizens to be aware of their rights and have easy recourse to them whenever their rights are infringed upon by the state or private role-players. In Mozambique, for the majority, access to the courts and an awareness of citizen’s rights pose a challenge. 320. The Constitution recognises legal pluralism, leading to an application of statutory law and customary norms. CCCs are recognised as helping to preserve law and order in the community and often handle domestic disputes, where they apply mediation and conflict resolution methods. Bigger and more technical cases are referred to the formal justice system. Those dissatisfied with decisions from the CCCs can appeal to the magistrates’ courts. 321. In CCCs, cases are resolved according to largely unwritten community rules, norms and practice. In addition, they tend to apply patriarchal constructions of customary law, which are often inimical to the rights of women. In some instances, community judges use formal law, with which they are not very conversant, and this creates a problem on appeal. CCC judges do not receive formal training on human rights codes and standards. The danger posed by this situation is that human rights guaranteed to citizens may not be applied to cases handled in these courts. 322. Access to justice for the ordinary person is hampered by technical procedures and other constraints. DCCs are not accessible to people in remote areas due to problems of distance and resources. Courts are not established in all districts, and the norms or rules of justice are not known or easily understood by the people. In many instances, as CSOs reported in the hearings, illiterate citizens are scared of the government because they do not know their rights and duties. In court, people sometimes lose their cases because they are afraid of the judge or do not understand Portuguese, and there often are no interpretation services in rural areas. Access to justice for persons with disabilities is very difficult, because they lack access to information about their constitutional rights. 323. The administration of justice still faces many challenges, the judicial system is weak, and the police lack adequate resources to investigate crime. Due to corruption in the judicial sector cases take long to be resolved. Also, as the CSAR points out, corruption has penetrated the justice system and many people feel that the rich can buy justice and evade the long arm of the law. 122 A P R M COU N T RY R EV IEW R EP ORT NO. 11