Juvenile Justice Administration The Case Of Tigray Regional State

Children in conflict with the law are vulnerable and hence need special protection andrnsupport services that are appropriate to their age and level of maturity. Special protectionrnneed to be given with a view to protect children in conflict with the law from further hardshiprnand trauma that may result due to their participation during criminal proceedings. Having thisrnin mind, the purpose of this study is to assess the juvenile justice administration in Tigrayrnregional state. To this end, quantitative and qualitative research methodologies were used andrnquestionnaires, interviews, and field visits were used as data gathering tools. A total of 129rnpersons were made part of this study from judges, public prosecutors, police, advocates, childrenrnin conflict with the law, human right commission experts, labour and social affairs bureaurnexpert, members of the parliament and social workers. The responses of those respondents wererninterpreted and analyzed. The core findings of the research are the following;rnIn the case of legislative measures, it is a positive development that Ethiopia is a state party torndifferent human rights instruments in general and children’s right like CRC and ACRWC inrnparticular. Furthermore, there are also domestic laws like the FDRE constitution and Tigrayrnconstitution, the revised criminal code and the criminal procedure which have key provisions onrnthe right of the child in conflict with the law. However, there are still some problems that need tornbe addressed in relation to these laws like; the minimum age of criminal responsibility is toornlow, the maximum age limit for juveniles is not in line with the international instruments, lack ofrnnon judiciary diversionary mechanism in the laws, absence of clear and detailed rules andrnguidelines on the application of juvenile cases, the problem of the law to give awareness to thernlarge varieties of non institutional dispositive measures.rnIt was also discovered that the situation relating to children in conflict with the law was veryrnpoor in Tigray regional state. The professionals’ working in the administration of justice suffersrnfrom a clear lack of adequate knowledge with the words and sprits of the law protecting childrenrnin conflict with the law. The system is also suffering from lack of child friendly infrastructuralrnfacilities like CPUs, CFCs, and non existence of any of the legally envisaged institutions tornadminister the educational measures prescribed by the criminal code. Furthermore, the conceptrnof diversion is not known in the regional state and the diversionary role assigned to the courts by the criminal procedure code is not much understood by the police and the courts. In other words,rnthere are not diversionary programs (centers) in the regional state. There was also problem ofrnnetworking among the justice professionals and other NGOs and CSOs. With regard to thesernshortcomings, the research makes some relevant recommendations which are believed to be ofrnhelp to the government in the better implementation of juvenile justice

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