Government to revamp juvenile-justice system

Ethiopia is overhauling its justice system to support child victims and offenders, an international children’s charity said on Thursday. Save the Children, Norway, are training judges, prosecutors and health professionals to make the current juvenile-justice system more "child friendly". It said the current system -where children are tried and/or victims of sexual attacks questioned by prosecutors in adult courts - instilled "fear and intimidation". "Court procedures are frightening for children," said Fassikawit Ayalew from Save the Children Norway. "This will enable child victims to express themselves freely without getting scared and will protect them from secondary trauma. It will also ensure courts get full information before making judgments." Some 13,500 children have been dealt with by the courts in Addis Ababa alone in the last three years, according to the Forum for Street Children. A further 11,000 were victims of crime, said the organisation in a joint report with the Addis Ababa Police Commission. The training is the first step in establishing three "child friendly" courts in Ethiopia - in the capital Addis Ababa, Nazareth, 100 km east of the capital, and in Mekelle, the regional capital of Tigray in northern Ethiopia. Save the Children said the initiative would rectify problems in the justice system and ensure that children get fair legal treatment. A key element of the overhaul is to "divert" petty child offenders out of the courts and into community-based programs. Currently, most child offenders are detained with adults, sometimes exposing them to abuse and negative influences, the charity said. Taking them out of the adult system will also rehabilitate children more effectively, as they tend to benefit from the structure and stability of home and school. "They will be [held] more accountable for their actions and receive the support they need to overcome their negative behavior," said Alemtsahay Mulat of Save the Children Sweden, which is supporting the project. "Diversion also minimizes the workload of the courts, so that more serious cases have the resources and time they need to be properly addressed." Child-friendly courts are meant to address child victims, mainly those who are sexually abused. In the new courts, children will give their testimony in a private room, which will be transmitted to the courtroom through a closed-circuit television system.