The Criminal Justice’s Response to Violence against women in Ethiopia: Case study in Hadiya of SNNPR

Abstract

Nowadays violence against women is the most pervasive form of violation of women’s human rights. It occurs within family, general community and committed or disregarded by states. It also takes any of sexual, physical and emotional abuses against women. Among other things it negatively affects the economic, social and health aspects of women. Above all it exposes women to various health related issue like susceptibility to HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases (STDs); and to reproductive health problems. Despite international and regional human rights instrument’s progress to protect women against all forms of discrimination and ensure equality, the prevalence of various forms of violence persists throughout the world to which Ethiopia is not an exception. The problem is not only limited on the pervasiveness and magnitude of the acts but it extends, inter alia, to implementation weakness of State apparatus. With this respect, particularly it has been noted that the criminal justice plays a critical role on the protection of women against all forms of violence. In this respect its failure to effectively respond to the incidences of violence against women jeopardizes the women’s human rights protection. Thus those limitations on the criminal justice’s response need to be identified through scientific legal research methodology. This study, depending on the qualitative legal research methodology and analyzing various relevant legal frameworks, has reached on various findings on Hadiya zone criminal justice’s response to VAW. Accordingly, the study has identified the existence of concerns regarding to prevention, investigation and prosecution; and ensuring the accountability of perpetrators of VAW and providing redress to victim. Those concerns are attributable to, inter alia, budget constraints, lack of specialized investigative skill, passive investigation procedures which insists victims to submit evidences and non- proportionate between the case loads and numbers of professionals. In addition to that major challenges that halt the effectiveness of criminal justice’s response to the VAW are identified which includes, inter alia, the normative framework gaps, institutional gaps and other challenges like influence of local elder’s arbitrations and inadequate multi-sectorial coordination. Finally the study has provided recommendations.