ACCESS TO JUSTICE IN ETHIOPIA: Towards an Inventory of Issues Editors Pietro S. Toggia (Prof.) Thomas F. Geraghty (Prof.) Kokebe W. Jemaneh Center for Human Rights Addis Ababa University May 2014 Access to Justice Series Contents Acknowledgement About the Editors Notes on Contributors Acronyms Introduction Part I: Rethinking The Ethiopian Justice System 1. Reconsidering Access to Justice in Ethiopia: Towards A Human Rights-Based Approach Kokebe Wolde Jemaneh 2. Access to Constitutional Justice in Ethiopia Adem Kassie Abebe 3. Petitioning the Executive in Ethiopia: Trends, Implications and Propriety of Institutionalizing Petitioning Kinfe Michael Yilima & Tadesse Melaku Part II: Engaging Customary Dispute Resolution Mechanisms to Enhance Access to Justice 4. Improving Access to Justice through Harmonization of Formal and Customary Dispute Resolution Mechanisms Assefa Fiseha 5. The Role of Traditional and Informal Justice Systems in Promoting Access to Justice in Criminal Justice Systems: A Comparative Study of South Africa, Uganda and Ethiopia Wondimagegne Gebre Fantaye Part III: National Human Rights Institutions and Access to Justice 6. National Human Rights Institutions and Access to Justice: The Role and Practice of Ethiopian Human Rights Commission in Advancing Access to Justice Mohammed Abdo Part IV: The Role of Legal Literacy in Enhancing Access to Justice 7. Effective Access to Justice through Legal Literacy in Ethiopia. Pietro Toggia Part V: Access to Justice for the Disadvantaged and Vulnerable 8. Disability and Access to Criminal Justice System in Ethiopia. Muradu Abdo 9. Beyond Legal Aid: CLPC‘s Experience in Providing Comprehensive Services to Realize Access to Justice for Children. Fasika Hailu Afterword Index Select Bibliography Acknowledgment The Center for Human Rights is deeply grateful to the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs who enabled the publication of this book by providing financial assistance including publication costs and honoraria for contributors. About the Editors Professor Pietro Toggia (Ph. D.) is an Ethiopian by birth, and has been teaching in the Department of Criminal Justice at Kutztown University of Pennsylvania, United States since 1998. He earned his master's and doctoral degrees in justice studies at Arizona State University in the United States. He is a full professor and teaches Criminology, Comparative Criminal Justice Systems, and Ethics in Criminal Justice. He has also taught graduate-level law and sociology classes in Criminology in the Departments of Sociology and Schools of Law at Addis Ababa University, Bahir Dar University, and the University of Gondar. He gave invitational lectures at the University of Teramo (Italy) and at Kenyatta University (Kenya). He has co-edited two books on the Horn of Africa and Ethiopia; he has also published peer reviewed articles on political violence, indigenous justice system, and ethical code of conduct for Ethiopian Criminal Justice professionals. He has also presented numerous international and national conference papers with a primary focus on Africa on topics ranging from modern policing, and constitutionalism and the rule of law to transitional justice in the American Society of Criminology, Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences, and the African Studies Association. He has published three encyclopedia entries on kidnapping, international guidelines on victimization, and on bail in The Encyclopedia of Criminology and Criminal Justice with Wiley-Blackwell and Sage. Professor Pietro Toggia currently serves as a member of the editorial boards of the African Journal of Criminology and Justice Studies (online), the International Journal of Ethiopian Studies, and the Bahir Dar University Journal of Law. Email: [email protected] Professor Thomas Geraghty is a graduate of Harvard College and The Northwestern University School of Law. He is the Class of 1967 James B. Haddad Professor of Law, the Associate Dean for Clinical Legal Education and Director of the Bluhm Legal Clinic at the Northwestern University School of Law. The Bluhm Legal Clinic houses 35 clinical faculty members and enrolls 170 students each year in its various programs. In addition to teaching, fund-raising, and administrative responsibilities, Prof. Geraghty maintains an active caseload at the Bluhm Legal Clinic, concentrating primarily in criminal and juvenile defense, death penalty appeals, child-centered projects dealing with the representation of children and juvenile court reform. Professor Geraghty is a member of The Board of Trustees of The National Institute for Trial Advocacy. E-mail: [email protected] Kokebe W. Jemaneh (LL.B. & LL.M.) is currently a Research and Publications Officer of the Access to Justice Project at the Center for Human Rights, Addis Ababa University. He has been teaching law at Bahir Dar University School of Law. While working there he has developed various teaching materials and has served as the founding editor-in-chief of Bahir Dar University Journal of Law and coordinator of the postgraduate, research and community services program of the Law School. Email: [email protected] Notes on Contributors Assefa Fiseha (PhD) is an Associate Professor, Center for Federal Studies, College of Law and Governance, Addis Ababa University. He has written extensively in the area of comparative federalism, Management of Diversity, customary dispute resolution mechanisms, legislative executive relations and on the role of the judiciary. Some of his works include: Ethiopia‘s Experiment in Accommodating Diversity: 20 years balance Sheet, Regional and Federal Studies 22:4 (2012) pages 435-473. Legislative –Executive Relations in the Ethiopian Parliamentary System in Ethiopia: Towards Institutional and Legal Reform, book chapter, in ‗Constitution making in Africa‘ ed. Jaap De Visser 2014; Separation of powers and its Implications for the Judiciary in Ethiopia, Journal of Eastern African Studies 5:4, (2011): 702-715. He can be reached at: [email protected] Dr Adem Kassie Abebe is a Senior Research Fellow at the Max Planck Foundation for International Peace and the Rule of Law, Heidelberg, Germany. The Foundation provides capacity building and technical assistance on constitutional, human rights, international law, and other legal issues, mainly to countries emerging out of conflict. Dr Adem is also an Extraordinary Lecturer at the University of Pretoria and a part-time Assistant Professor at the University of Addis Ababa. He has published extensively on comparative constitutional and human rights issues in Ethiopia, Africa and beyond. Dr Adem completed his Bachelor of Laws (LL.B.) at the University of Jimma in Ethiopia, and his masters (LL.M.) and doctoral (LL.D.) studies at the University of Pretoria in South Africa. He may be reached at: [email protected] Fasika Hailu has M.A. in Human Rights from Addis Ababa University Center for Human Rights and LL.B. from Addis Ababa University School of Law. She has more than a decade of practical hands on experience in the field of human rights working both in Civil Society Organization named Action Professionals‘ Association for the People/APAP/ and under a national human right institution: the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission. She has written a number of human rights training manuals and guidelines as well as conducted various action researches alone and in collaboration with colleagues. She has also written various short articles on her organizations‘ periodic magazines. Currently, she is serving as the head of the Children‘s Legal Protection Center/CLPC/ established under the Federal Supreme Court in collaboration with African Child Policy Forum. CLPC is mandated to protect the rights of children coming into contact with the justice system through the provision of legal and psychosocial services. Mr. Kinfe was formerly a lecturer-in-law at Hawassa University Law School. He received his Bachelor of Laws (LL.B.) degree from Addis Ababa University with great distinction in July 2009 and his Master of Laws (LL.M.) degree in Internet Law from the University of Oslo in December 2012. He also studied Internet privacy at the University of Oxford, Oxford Internet Institute in 2012. His earlier research and teachings focused on the Ethiopian tax law regime on which he produced a number of articles published in reputable journals. He recently devotes his time on researching and writing on the intersections of human rights and technology. He particularly writes on the interplay between privacy and the Internet. Mr. Kinfe is currently a Chevening Scholar at Brunel University London in the UK. Mohammed Abdo is Assistant Professor, Institute of Federalism and Legal Studies, Ethiopian Civil Service University, and PhD Candidate at the Institute of Human Rights Centre, Ghent University, Belgium. He has been teaching at the Institute of Federalism and Legal Studies, Ethiopian Civil Service University, Ethiopia since 1998. He has published monographs on administrative law and civil procedure, and a number of articles and book chapters on various issues involving human rights, legal pluralism, and international watercourses law. He can be reached at: [email protected] Muradu Abdo Srur received his undergraduate degree in law from Addis Ababa University and his LL.M. degree from the University of San Francisco. He has published articles, book reviews, case comments, text-books in the areas of property law, customary law and legal history. He served as a member of editorial committees of law journals as well as