Judiciary "failing to stop human rights abuses"

Ethiopia's judiciary is failing to prevent widespread human rights abuses, a landmark conference on federalism, conflict and peace building heard on Wednesday. Dr Getachew Assefa, a lecturer at Ethiopia's civil service college, told the conference in Addis Abab that both the state and federal judicial systems “leave a lot to be desired” in protecting the constitution of the country. He said within the various regions of Ethiopia, the situation was even worse with a catalogue of abuse and a lack of funding or skilled manpower to protect human rights. “The state justice system as a whole and particularly the state courts have multi-faceted problems," he said. Ethiopia is undergoing widespread judicial reform programme and Prime Minister Meles Zenawi has declared that judicial reform is the top priority for the country. The three-day symposium, hosted by the Ministry of Federal Affairs and the German development agency GTZ, heard that federalism plays a vital role in ensuring that the country’s fledgling democracy is maintained. Getachew said that under a federal government, it was vital for regional, state and federal courts to protect human rights among the dozens of ethnic groups in the country. But he added that poor training, a lack of awareness by police and security forces, and a lack of supervision often meant abuses were perpetrated in the regions of Ethiopia. Getachew, who has investigated killings in Gambella Region on behalf of the Ministry of Federal Affairs, added that local authorities were “blatantly engaged in different types of suppression”.