Today Ethiopia is celebrating its justice day. Indeed, the celebration is a reminder of the importance of active involvement of the community and stakeholders in the ongoing justice sector reform Plus, it would surly give an impetus in the efforts of maintaining rule of law, building democracy, bringing good governance and gathering inputs that help to earn public trust in the judicial system.
Apart from observing the day, the Federal Supreme Court has been conducting extensive discussion on the reforms undertaken in the judicial system in all nine states and two city administrations since last month.
For over a quarter of a century, the justice system of the nation has seen some progress in increasing accessibility and promptness than ever before.
In addition to this, for over a decade, the federal courts have been equipped with latest technology and so these days clients could make use of e-filling, e-litigation, video conference technology and others.
Utilizing the above stated technology, a number of fellow citizens have managed to save their hard-won money and time used to be spent on transportation and other unnecessary expenses.
In the efforts of human power development, currently over 80 per cent of the nation’s judges are said to have bachelor and masters degrees in law. This ought to be continued till every court is headed by judges with bachelors, masters and Ph.D. degrees.
For now, having a fast-track justice delivery system is crucial as the nation is in the process of institutionalizing rule of law and democracy.
Moreover, to attract many more foreign investors, the justice delivery system needs to be a modern and fast one. Also there must be judges and lawyers, who have specialized in international financial, transactional laws and others, with a view to giving timely and fair rulings on such cases.
There is no doubt that the government and judicial body need to work focusing on upholding judicial independence and transparency than ever before.
This is because it is believed that the public do not have the desired trust in the nation’s justice system for various reasons.
In this country, many people think that in one way or another court decisions are made in favour of a client who bribes the judge. Such corrupt persons as well do not like to be in court room unless they are forced by law.
Hence, this and other deeply entrenched negative attitudes towards the justice system have to be changed sooner than later.
To bring about the required attitudinal changes towards the justice system among the public at large, first and foremost, the Attorney General needs to be a role model in ensuring good governance in all of its activities.
Then, it has to carry out awareness deepening campaigns throughout the country using examples of so far registered and remarkable changes and successes in respecting rule of law, serving justice and fighting injustice.
Last but not least, apart from upholding judicial independence and transparency in this country, efficiency of court decisions and their enforcement have to be the fundamental measures of all functioning courts in the country.
The Ethiopian Herald September 10/2019
