Cases in the federal courts (sourced from the Supreme Court’s Annual Report 2013) show that civil cases dominate the courts.
In the past year – of civil cases disposed: 109,000 in FHC and FFIC (combined)
In the past year – of criminal cases disposed: 47,000 in FHC and FFIC (combined)
Criminal cases constituted 43% of the caseload disposed by the courts.
The data collected were validated by all institutions, save for the Sharia Courts who agreed to share their data and no further.
Federal institutional data were not available from police. Annual reports were available from all federal institutions for 2013, save for police.
FEDERAL POLICE – no data
In round terms, federal prosecutors laid charges in just over 50% of cases last year. These figures were not disaggregated by type of offence (i.e. GBV) nor age (young offender).
On enquiry the research team was informed of the following disposals:
The balance were withdrawn. Data disaggregated by offence (GBV) or age (under 18) were not available.
The data the FFIC and FHC keep and the report they prepared for the 2021 fiscal year shows that they categorize cases as follows: those cases that are less than 30 days old, those cases that are between one month and two months old, those cases that are between 2-6 months old, those case that are between 6 months and one year old, those cases that are between one year and 3 years old, those cases that are between 3 years and 6 years old and those cases that are 6 years and above.
Target indicators in the Annual Report emphasise efficiency in case disposal in all courts. The data show all courts to be managing their caseload and an apparent absence of significant case backlogs going back many years (disposal rates averaged 87% in the FFIC, 74% in the FHC and 77% in the FSC).
Data as to case disposal (to gauge the conviction / acquittal rates) were not available, nor were data disaggregated by offence (GBV) nor age (under 18).
The 72 PDs in Addis Ababa are reported to have disposed of 2500 cases in the past 12 months (ie 2% of the total caseload disposed in FSC, FHC and FFIC).
The caseload per PD shows a mean disposal rate in Addis Ababa of 3 cases disposed per month.
The EWLA provided legal services last year and advised 319 people including mediating 22 cases and disposing of 63 cases in court (data were not disaggregated).
The EWLA also conducted a number of trainings, including empowering 200 women to ‘self represent’ in court; 50 police men on GBV; and 50 high school students on self-confidence and training.
The Addis Ababa University (AAU) legal clinics do not have the license to represent clients in court. The clinics concentrate on providing legal advice and assisted 4237 in the past year.
An enhanced role for ULCs requires further enquiry and the role of students, in particular, under student ‘practice rules’ which allow final year law students access to practice in courts under supervision. Presently their role is limited to the provision of legal advice (under supervision).
The total federal prisoner population varied between 6820-7810. The breakdowns by subset (sentenced / unsentenced and gender) did not add up. Further clarification was not possible within the time available, so in view of the data anomalies, the data are not set down here.
Data collection continued through September into October. Access to key actors was initially postponed due to the elections and further inhibited by the pandemic. Security actors were increasingly stretched pre and post-elections. The timing of this research was called into question on more than one occasion. The research team worked in very difficult circumstances.
The data were validated by the federal institutions in Addis on 28 October.
The Federal police indicated agreement to share police data was a management decision of the department responsible. Management had not met by the end of the research, so police data could not be collected. No federal Police Annual report 2013 was available.
The federal OAG operates 10 offices in Addis and 3 One Stop Centres. A new office is to be established in Lemi Kura sub-city. The offices are all equipped and able to access utilities, save for the provision of ramps (only 2 have access for disabled persons) and safe spaces (0). The 359 federal prosecutors (113 women – 31%) are paid ETB 25,250 per month (USD $535).
There is no independent Bar Association at present (draft legislation is in process towards this end). At present the OAG/MoJ registers advocates, issues and suspends licenses, administers the entrance exam and keeps the register of advocates. While there are individual associations of lawyers as groups (eg Ethiopian Womens Law Association, EWLA and Ethiopian Lawyers Association), there is no one regulatory body. This produces difficulties in counting the number of lawyers in each region and nationally. Further enquiry is needed not only as to numbers but also as to locations. It is assumed, as elsewhere, that the overwhelming majority of practicing lawyers will congregate in the urban centres. If so, this poses challenges for ensuring meaningful legal aid services to people in quieter and more remote locations. Again this is not a situation unique to Ethiopia. In other countries, the legal establishment has resorted to paralegals in the same way the health profession uses primary health care workers. These paralegals provide appropriate advice and empower people to access justice in simple and minor cases, or refer them to lawyers in serious and complex cases.
The federal courts do not have a physical regional presence outside Addis Ababa and Dire Dawa.They see cases in all the regions through ‘ተዘዋዋሪ ችሎት”, e- filing and e- litigation and e- designation systems. The ‘ተዘዋዋሪ ችሎት” takes place in the court rooms of the regional courts. The federal courts have plasma e-litigation court hearings in 46 places in different regions of the country. The federal courts also have e-filing and e-designation system in Mekelle, Bahri Dar, Assosa, Hawassa, Diredawa and Harari. Such electronic systems are facilitated by the ICT office and only require limited offices to facilitate such services. Usually, an employee of the federal courts receives files, scan and send it to the federal court which entertains the case and returns it back.
In Addis, there are 10 federal First Instance courts, 4 federal High Courts and one Supreme Court. All report needing structural repair, but all appear to have essential utilities.
Judges:
No interpreters are employed by the federal courts. They are hired on an ad hoc basis.
All Judges have access to office equipment (such as internet, printers / copiers etc) but those in the FHC and FFIC report they do not have ready access to the Laws and Commentaries nor updates on the laws. Recording technology is also absent from the court rooms.
FHC judges are remunerated ETB 33,476 per month (approx. USD $710) and FFIC judges at ETB 28,250 (approx. USD $600).
The Federal Supreme Court of Sharia sits in Addis Ababa.
Addis Ababa has 1 High Court of Sharia and 1 First Instance Court of Sharia. Both spaces appear adequate in terms of utilities but none have ramps for disabled access nor safe spaces for vulnerable witnesses/complainants.
Kadis
None have access to a vehicle and office equipment is limited. None have internet access.
There are 9 offices in Addis. In terms of infrastructure and resources:
Addis has 72 PDs (24 women – 33%) who share 3 vehicles and appear to have adequate office equipment. They are paid ETB 20,500 per month.
LASPs – No data were collected for NGO legal aid service providers. This requires further enquiry.
Addis Ababa University operates 3 legal clinics staffed by 3 lawyers (1 woman) and 50 students (25 women). The offices lack toilets for men or women and vehicles, but the staff appear to have adequate space (one has a ramp) and equipment to work. The legal clinics do not have a license to represent clients in court. The services therefore focus on advice and assistance.
UNODC completed an assessment of the federal prisons in 2018 (available in the Library under Institutions_Prisons).
There are five federal prisons:
In terms of infrastructure and resources:
No data on staffing were made available.
The Prisons Annual Report contained little in the way of data, such as population numbers. The tables of data in the report focused on performance targets, such as:
The original was in the Amharic so may suffer in translation. However it is unclear what these targets are aimed at, or what the percentiles listed mean (without numbers to show how they are calculated).
EHRC visited most federal prisons in the past 12 months (it unclear whether a visit was made to Dire Dawa). No reports were available from the EHRC as they are reorganising their library of materials. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) visits federal and regional prisons as well as other places of detention. The NGO Justice for All-Prison Fellowship Ethiopia also is reported to have had access to many prison and detention facilities around the country.
POLICE
Police were not available to participate in the research. Access to data required the management decision of the department.
The management had not met and decided on the issue by the time the research was completed.”
OAG
Data mismatch: cases pending are not consistent with preceding case data.
Cases pending: at the date of validation (28 October), the data were changed to 48,381 cases pending. This change was not explained. The data were altered in the baseline data.
COURTS
FSC in AR2013 categorize cases as: less than 30 days old, between 1 month and 2 months old, between 2-6 months old, between 6 months and one year old, between 1-3 years old, between 3-6years old and 6 years and above. A distinction is not drawn between backlogged cases over, say, 4 years and less than 4 years.
FIC: The cases reopened (2845) have been added to the new cases (29735) to provide the total new cases: 32580
HC: The cases reopened (1246) have been added to the new cases (9804) to provide the total new cases: 11050
OPD
Data mismatch: cases carried forward (12023) are not consistent with the previous data.
LASP
No case data for NGOs were available in Addis
ULC
The Addis Ababa University (AAU) legal clinics do not have the license to represent clients in court. People in need are assisted with any legal service bar representation.
PRISONS
Total federal prisoner population varied between 6820-7810. Data breakdowns by subset and gender did not add up. Further clarification was not possible.
SHARIA COURTS
Data anomaly: it is unclear how the disposed cases in FIC and HC exceed the number pending + new cases. It may be due to reopened cases.
COURTS
Data anomaly: it is unclear how the disposed cases in FIC exceed the number pending + new cases. It may be due to reopened cases.
Data mismatch: cases carried forward in the RHC are not consistent with the preceding data.
Data mismatch: cases carried forward in the SC total: 5117 from preceding data.
Case data for Dire Dawa are incomplete.
FEDERAL POLICE – no data
FOAG
In round terms, federal prosecutors laid charges in 20% of cases last year, including 51 charges of GBV.
COURTS
The data were finally released by the courts on 19 October. The case data appeared to be for the FHC, though there was no label. This is assumed from the caseload. There were no data available for the number of criminal cases disposed in the past year. It appears that 51 civil cases were disposed of by the court.
In the Sharia Courts, there were no data for the First Instance courts. In the Federal High Court of Sharia, there were recorded to be 214 new cases last year, all of which were brought by women.
OPD
The 2 PDs in Dire Dawa report disposing of 40 cases in the past 12 months (just under 2 cases per month each).
ULC
As in Addis Ababa, the clinics concentrate on providing legal advice and assisted 1132 in the past year.
PRISONS
In Dire Dawa (with the new extension), there are recorded to be 950 adult men, 50 women and 11 boys aged between 15-18, all sentenced. There was no breakdown of sentence to indicate the numbers serving less than 3 years. It appears the 11 boys are either included as men or excluded from the total count. There were no data concerning the prison’s capacity.
The Federal police indicated agreement to share police data was a management decision of the department responsible. Management had not met by the end of the research, so police data could not be collected. No federal Police Annual report 2013 was available.
The federal OAG operates 1 office and 0 One Stop Centres. The 28 federal prosecutors (5 women) have adequate office space (including safe space for vulnerable witnesses) and office equipment and share 3 vehicles. They are paid ETB 18,000 (+ allowances).
The federal courts do not have a physical regional presence outside Addis Ababa and Dire Dawa.They see cases in all the regions through ‘ተዘዋዋሪ ችሎት”, e- filing and e- litigation and e- designation systems. The ‘ተዘዋዋሪ ችሎት” takes place in the court rooms of the regional courts. The federal courts have plasma e-litigation court hearings in 46 places in different regions of the country. The federal courts also have e-filing and e-designation system in Mekelle, Bahri Dar, Assosa, Hawassa, Diredawa and Harari. Such electronic systems are facilitated by the ICT office and only require limited offices to facilitate such services. Usually, an employee of the federal courts receives files, scan and send it to the federal court which entertains the case and returns it back.
In Dire Dawa, there is 1 Federal High Court and 1 Federal First Instance Court. No further data as to infrastructure nor resources were supplied. A Federal High Court judge is paid ETB 32,750 per month.
There is no Federal Supreme Court of Sharia in Dire Dawa which has 1 High Court of Sharia and 1 First Instance Court of Sharia. Both spaces appear adequate in terms of utilities but none have ramps for disabled access nor safe spaces for vulnerable witnesses/complainants.
Kadis
None have access to a vehicle and office equipment is limited. None have internet access.
There is 1 office in Dire Dawa.
The office of the PD is a shared space in the Federal High Court, it has no independent office.
Dire Dawa has 2 PDs (1 woman) with no vehicle nor basic office equipment. They are paid ETB 21,500 per month.
LASPs – No data were collected for NGO legal aid service providers. This requires further enquiry.
Dire Dawa operates 2 legal clinics staffed by 2 women lawyers and 10 students (4 women). The offices have essential utilities and office equipment but no vehicle. As with AAU, the services focus on advice and assistance. In the past 12 months they report advising in 1132 matters and mediating 31 disputes.
Dire Dawa has 1 federal prison which has been expanded recently.
In terms of infrastructure and resources:
Staffing:
No data were available as to salaries.
It is not clear whether the EHRC visited Dire Dawa in the last year.
POLICE
Police were not available to participate.
OAG
Data mismatch: cases pending (2317) are not consistent with preceding case data.
COURTS
There is no FSC in DD. The court data provided was for the FHC. There were no data for FFIC.
ULC
ULCs mediated31 cases
PRISONS
In Dire Dawa new federal prison there are recorded to be 950 adult men, 50 women and 11 boys aged between 15-18, all sentenced. It appears the 11 boys are either included as men or excluded from the total count.
COURTS
Case data were only available from the FHC
Data mismatch: cases carried forward are not consistent with previous data
SHARIA COURTS
There is no Supreme Court of Sharia in Dire Dawa
There is one First Instance Court of Sharia but no case data were available
The 214 new cases in the High Court of Sharia were all brought by women.