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Ethiopia: Research Highlights Need for 'Restorative Justice' in Legal System
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The Daily Monitor (Addis Ababa)
18 March 2008
Posted to the web 18 March 2008
Fikremariam Tesfaye
Addis Ababa
Incorporating Restorative Justice in to the Ethiopian legal system which is not doing well in the area of the protection of victims is crucial to ensure promotion of communal peace, a research conducted on the Ethiopian criminal law recommended last week.
"Victims have little role-except in complaint offenses. Law allows victim indemnification. Civil proceedings for compensation not often resorted to by the victims because of diverse reasons," Professor Tsegye Regassa, who conducted the research, said.
He said Restorative Justice (RJ) was a way of thinking, a mode of looking at the phenomenon of crime, a paradigm, rather than merely a set of activities.
"It is a perspective on criminal justice to make it more humane, more personal, and more oriented towards the interest of the victim, the offender, and the community.
RJ is meant to redeem the deficits of the Civil Code justice System.
The researcher said the present day situation allowed for re-victimization as a reprisal for complaining to law enforcement officials.
Poor access to evidence of the victim's lack to medical evidence for harm leads to acquittal of offender, according to the researcher.
"No victim protection scheme, dealing with the after effects of crime and its trauma. No victim support circles. No financial support to let them cope with after the incidence of crime. No psychological counseling support to let them overcome the trauma. No way of dealing with the stigma associated with certain types of crimes like rape case.
Restorative Justice is being practiced in Canada and the US since the past 30 years, the researcher noted adding it was not a new idea in Ethiopia, too.
We have the Guma in Oromia region, and the Kassa in the Amhara, the researches said.
The Judiciary, Legislative and Executive bodies were participated in the discussion.
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Professor Tsegye Regassa presented his research titled Restorative Justice in Oromia/Ethiopia: Some pointers towards incorporating it in the Criminal Justice System on Saturday at Ghion Hotel on Saturday.
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