face of the many inevitable obstacles that will arise in achieving these goals. 10. In the last year we have seen significant police violence, often targeted at minorities. These events, when they occur, undermine faith in the criminal justice system in itself. They creates a deficit of trust and confidence which impacts the way in which minorities behave towards the police, and the extent to which the police, feeling under siege, respond. Eradicating violence from policing ought to be a general consideration, but perhaps more pragmatically, ensuring that where it is absolutely necessary, it is used in proportionality to the exigency of the situation, is fundamental. 11. Of course effective policing and penitentiary systems would focus as much on building trust and confidence within societies and preventing crime, as they do on seeking out perpetrators who ought to be punished by the system. To do this effectively, such bodies need to be truly representative of the population they seek to police. It is not only important to attract and recruit candidates from minority backgrounds, especially women. It is, rather, equally important to ensure that they are retained, are visible in society, and harbor genuine prospects for promotion all the way to the status of decision makers. Such processes would, over time, eliminate harmful attitudes and practices that may be prevalent within institutions, but would also send out a clear message to the public that the function of policing is not one that can be done primarily from and by dominant communities. 12. An equally specific branch of the state’s administration I would hope we would pay special attention to in our deliberation over the next two days, is the composition and attitudes of our judiciary. It is a fundamental norm of all good legal systems that the justice mechanisms we have in place are viewed as independent and objective. This creates legal certainty and removes doubt about the extent to which bias informs decisions. Ensuring that the judiciary is cognizant of the lived experiences of all within their society, is a basic requirement in dispensing an adequate standard of justice. But a much bigger challenge lies in ensuring that our judiciaries represent people from the entire spectrum of its nationals with a particular emphasis on women, minorities, and especially, minority women. This is not only important in terms of visibility: it is, rather a fundamental necessity for the pathos and empathy that characterize good judicial decision making. 13. With these remarks I would now like to take the opportunity to draw your attention so some important points and ground rules to ensure that these two days provide us with genuine opportunity for dialogue that has characterized these fora.