Ethiopian Police University College

This study examines the effectiveness of inter-ethnic conflict resolution mechanisms in Ethiopia, focusing on Ataye town in the North Shewa Administrative Zone of the Amhara National Regional State. It assesses the contributions of ‘traditional’ conflict resolution mechanisms and other more formal and alternative dispute resolution strategies employed by the Government of Ethiopia, including federal institutions such as the House of Federation, the Ministries of Peace, and Justice, as well as the Disaster Risk Management (DRM) Council. The DRM Council plays a crucial role in integrating disaster risk reduction with conflict prevention efforts, promoting community resilience, and facilitating dialogue among conflicting parties. Using a mixed-methods approach, the study utilized both primary and secondary data sources. A total of 380 participants, including 127 women, took part in key informant interviews, focus group discussions, and survey questionnaires. Secondary data sources, particularly relevant policy, administrative, and local security reports, were also reviewed. Qualitative data were thematically coded and analyzed, while quantitative data were processed using descriptive and inferential statistics via SPSS version 20. The findings indicate that ‘traditional’ conflict resolution mechanisms, particularly the Gadaa and Shimglina institutions, were found relatively effective in mitigating and resolving conflicts between the Oromo and Amhara communities in Ataye. However, trust in the conflict resolution capacity of federal government institutions, particularly the House of Federation, is minimal, with nearly 59 percent of respondents doubting its effectiveness. Similarly, a significant number of participants believe that the conflict resolution capacity of the Ministry of Peace at the grassroots level is weak, with limited outreach and communication capacity to engage different community segments in conflict resolution efforts. The study further revealed that the local criminal justice system faces accountability and public trust deficits, indicating a pressing need for future reforms. It emphasizes the necessity for stronger institutional collaboration and synergy among ‘traditional’ conflict resolution organizations and formal government institutions, notably the Ministry of Peace and the DRM Council, at regional and district levels.

BackgroundUnplanned pregnancy is an important public health problem in both the developing and developed world, as it may cause adverse social and health outcomes for mothers, children, and families as a whole. London Measure of Unplanned Pregnancy (LMUP) has been formally and informally validated in multiple and diverse settings. However, there is a dearth of literature on the validation of LMUP in Ethiopia either in the Amharic version or other languages.ObjectiveThe general objective of this study was to translate the LMUP into Amharic and evaluate its psychometric properties in a sample of Amharic-speaking women receiving antenatal care (ANC) service at public health facilities in Arbaminch and Birbir towns.MethodsA cross-sectional study design was used for the study. Forward and backward translation of original English LMUP to Amharic was done. A cognitive interview using a pretested structured questionnaire was used to collect the data from respondents. The collected data was analyzed using SPSS version 25. Reliability was assessed using Cronbach’s alpha, inter-item correlations, and corrected item-total correlations while construct validity was assessed using principal components analysis and hypothesis testing.ResultsData was collected from 320 women attending antennal care services at selected public health care facilities. LMUP range of 1to 11 was captured. The prevalence of unplanned pregnancies was 19(5.9%), while 136(42.5 were ambivalent and 165(51.6%) were planned pregnancies. The reliability testing demonstrated acceptable internal consistency (Cronbach’s alpha = 0.799) and the validity testing confirmed the unidimensional structure of the scale. In addition, all hypotheses were confirmed.ConclusionsAmharic version of LMUP is a valid and reliable tool to measure pregnancy intention so that it can be used by Amharic speaking population in Ethiopia. It can also be used in research studies among Amharic-speaking women to measure unplanned pregnancy.

One of the fundamental principles of International Humanitarian Law (IHL) is that persons who do not or no longer participate in armed conflict should be maximally protected and, in general, treated humanely. This extends to dead bodies in armed conflict that should be treated with respect and dignity. In many armed conflicts, however, individuals have been separated from their families and died without being identified. Dead bodies are sometimes despoiled, mutilated, and abandoned without any funeral rite. The knowledge that the remains of their loved ones have been properly handled and accorded dignity is a source of solace to the family. This article is, therefore, to examine the position of the Ethiopian legal infrastructure in response to dead body management in armed conflict. To this end, the author employed a doctrinal-based analytical study. Both primary and secondary data sources are utilized and the data retrieved from both sources are analyzed with a normative qualitative approach. The status of the Ethiopian law to do justice to the dead and their families are examined in light of the IHL and FDRE Constitution, Revised Criminal Code, and Defense legislation. Based on this, the article found that the Ethiopian legal regime does not fully recognize dead body management in armed conflict. In particular, though the obligation towards the respectful treatment of the dead bodies, respectful disposal of the dead, and protection of their possessions are recognized, the obligation to search for and collect the body of the dead, return the dead bodies to the family or next of kin, identify and respectfully dispose of the dead is virtually none. Therefore, the Ethiopian legal regime should incorporate the rest obligations to be in line with the international treaty obligations so that effective justice can be done to the dead, their family, and next of kin. Keywords: Armed Conflict, Dead Body Management, IHL, Posthumous Rights DOI: 10.7176/IAGS/95-02 Publication date: June 30 th 2022

Disparities of sentencing in similar crimes cause a typical problem; Law scholars devoted their time to reconcile the debate “should the crime fit with the individual or should the individual behavior fit with the type of crime that she or he committed?” This has remained an issue in criminal sentencing. It is the most crucial stage in criminal justice system because crime is an inevitable phenomenon in human social life. In addition, sentencing is a means designed to give notice for the general public by described punishable crimes and to punish a criminal that he/she have to be convicted by a court of law. In ancient times, punishment was premised on the principle of “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth” and punishments were degrading and inhumane by today’s standard. These days punishments are relatively humane and focus on rehabilitation. Many universal human right instruments provide for the rights of convicted persons and many countries are members of these instruments. Sentencing disparity is a problem everywhere, and countries have adopted sentencing guidelines to solve this problem. Ethiopia is one of them that adopted and revised the first and the second sentencing guidelines in 2010 and 2013 respectively. The study has applied qualitative and doctrinal legal research method that revealed the following points. The general objective of this study is to explore whether the Ethiopian Federal Supreme court sentencing guidelines could tackle the unwarranted sentencing disparities in federal courts or not. In addition, the main purposes of the sentencing guidelines have to ensure proportionality, consistency, predictability and fairness of sentencing throughout in the country on federal matters. However, the principles of alike cases were not getting uniformity of decision that have been realized in many scenarios; the sentencing guidelines from design to practices shown that it was unable to stop unwarranted disparities of sentencing due to different factors. The lack of clarity of sentencing guidelines, the lack of mutual understanding of the legal practitioners to the sentencing guidelines, lack of supervision and controlling mechanisms of the sentencing guidelines were considered as the root causes of sentencing disparities.

The police have the responsibility to balance public protection from harm by respecting the human rights of suspects during prevention and investigation. However, it is difficult to achieve absolute balance because it is determined based on the police because the process or model of crime control, especially in the case of special investigative techniques, is a confidential investigation of serious crimes based on the principles of legality, necessity, proportionality, and adequate protection. The purpose of the doctrinal article evaluates the role of special crime investigation techniques for human trafficking in Ethiopia. Data is collected through document review and interviews with crime investigators, intentionally and in direct contact. Qualitative research and descriptive design. The collected data is analyzed thematically. Research findings that there are some special investigative technical provisions in FDRE criminal justice policies, human trafficking and smuggling of migrant proclamations. However, this legal basis is not as comprehensive as specific types of investigation techniques, who did it and for how long, the requirements for doing this were not answered. Therefore, the House of Representatives must make a law covering all specific investigative techniques for human trafficking in Ethiopia. The Attorney General must also create public awareness about it.

The purpose of the investment is to bring benefits to the owners and sustainable development for the local community and for future generations. Arbitration is the process of resolving legal disputes between individuals, groups and countries. Every investment activity must ensure sustainable development to respect the rights of future generations. However; Canadian zinc smelting companies emit sulfur dioxide and cause air pollution in the United States. This created a dispute between Canada and the United States, then they agreed to settle it through a neutral arbitration court. As a result, this arbitration court ruling creates two principles of international environmental law primarily; the polluter pays the principle and obligation of the state not to damage the environment outside its jurisdiction. This arbitration award establishes the concept of Harm across borders and the principle of polluter pays to ensure the sovereignty of international environmental law. Therefore; if disputes arise between countries, they can resolve them through peaceful dispute resolution mechanisms such as negotiation, mediation and arbitration.

Purpose of the study: One of the modus operandi of criminals such as terrorist, emotional, mentally ill person to achieve their need is held person hostage, especially government officials, investors, and tourists. The police also used to force to secure peace and security, but now the police use the hostage negotiation team to save the life of hostage-taker and hostage. These hostage-takers take innocent hostage persons as means of negotiation, which may terrorize everybody, such as an investor, tourist, and vulnerable group, which have a negative impact on the development and peace of the country. Additionally, the right to life is the mother of other human rights. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the practice of hostage situation and its resolution
 Methodology: Data were collected through document review and interviews of police and victim, who were selected purposively since they have direct relation. This is desktop research and descriptive design. The data were collected through document review and media review. The collected data were analyzed thematically.
 Finding: The result of the analysis data shows that there is a hostage situation in Ethiopia, and the response of the police is the use of force than the negotiation team.
 Application: The police should establish a hostage negotiation department with professional negotiators. The governments also should enact negotiation policy and strategy in Ethiopia.
 Novelty/Originality: There is a hostage situation, and its resolution lacks clear guidelines in Ethiopia, and nobody studied it. Therefore, this study may use as reference material for students'; the government may use it as input for policy and lawmakers.

Mobile or outreach type of voluntary counseling and testing approach is a useful way to reach high risk groups and rural population that are far away from facility based voluntary counseling and testing (VCT) service. Little has been done to assess the quality of mobile VCT services in Ethiopia. This study aims to assess the quality of mobile VCT services and client satisfaction in the cities of Addis Ababa and Adama. This study used both qualitative and quantitative study designs. Structured questionnaire was administered to 279 client respondents. The qualitative data was analyzed by thematic areas, and the quantitative data was analyzed and interpreted by using statistical packages for social sciences (SPSS) package of version 13.0. Overall service satisfaction of the clients was very high in this study. The competence of the counselors was good. Short duration of counseling time, inconvenience of counseling rooms, high number of clients seen by the counselors amongst other factors were findings from the qualitative study that can affect the quality of the mobile VCT services.  To improve the promotional activities, the referral linkages and the feedback problem, there should be work integration with government health institutions, non-governmental organization (NGOs) and kebele (the smallest administrative unit) HIV focal persons. Key words: Quality, satisfaction, quality of VCT counselors, providers, client, quality of VCT site,

Birth-preparedness and complication readiness is a comprehensive strategy aimed at promoting the timely utilization of skilled maternal and neonatal health care and encouraging women, households and communities to make arrangements. This paper aimed to assess knowledge and practices on birth preparedness and complication readiness and related factors among antenatal clients in Federal Police Referral Hospital. Institutional based cross-Sectional study was conducted on 224 sampled pregnant women from September 14, 2014- October, 24 2014 who were attending Ante Natal Care in Federal Referral Police Hospital, Addis Ababa. Data was analyzed using SPSS version 20. Different rates, as well as relevant associations were computed to see statistical significant. P-value less than 0.05 was taken as a cut of point to declare significant association. Multiple logistic regression analysis was also done to control for possible confounding variables. In this study the proportion of respondents considered as knowledgeable for key dangerous signs were 152(67.8%), 140 (62.1%), 118 (52.2%) during pregnancy, delivery, and postpartum respectively About 126(56.3 %) of the women were considered as prepared for birth and its complication. Maternal age of less than 20 years (COR = 3.5, 95% CI: 1.07, 11.66). Mothers who knew the key danger sign of pregnancy, child birth andpost-partum were almost three times more likely to be prepared for birth and its complications than mothers who didn’t know (COR = 2.61, 95% CI: 1.47, 4.65); (COR = 2.72, 95% CI: 1.56, 4.74) and (COR = 2.66, 95% CI: 1.54, 4.53) respectively. When the age of the client from socio demographic variables; knowledge on key danger signs of pregnancy, labor and post-partum were adjusted no one significantly associated with birth preparedness and complication readiness. In this study about 56.3 % women were prepared for birth and its complication which is relatively fair. Knowledge of key dangers signs of pregnancy, labor and delivery and postpartum were found to be the main factors affecting birth preparedness and complication readiness. Improving ANC education on BP/CR, giving special emphasis to comprehensive knowledge of key danger signs is recommended.