NEWA held its 2nd Gender Talk on January 30,2004 on the subject of ‘Women and the Ministry of Justice' with the vise-Minster, Mr. Ali Suleiman as the guest speaker. NEWA believes that the status of women in the judiciary and how women faire in the legal system is a crucial subject. It is one important area that women organizations need to focus on as part of their struggle to end gender inequality. As firsthand information is essential to women as they strive to achieve equality before the law, NEWA's second Gender Talk focused on what steps the Ministry of justices took to address this issue and explore what could be done to improve the problems women face in this area.
After the guest speaker was introduced by the director of NEWA, Mrs. Saba Gebre-Medhin, the vise minister gave an overall presentation on the weight that the government gives to justice and the reforms that have been made in the dispensation of justice in this country. Concerning gender, the vise minister highlighted the measures taken in the justice system in connection with the rights of women and children. He stressed the new provision under which women cases would be expeditiously processed. Under the restructured civil service, he said, a conscious effort was made to empower women by allocating a 30% quota for women in the decision-making posts of the ministry of justice.
He added that the Ministry of Justice has 9 branch offices in the regions and 23 sub-offices, working closely with the various women associations including the Women Affairs Bureau. The vise minister underscored that the ministry of justice has given the problem of crime and violence against women and children especial attention. He stressed that his ministry has started working with the federal polices in order to reduce the crime rate against women and children. As part of the reform effort he informed the house that the ministry of justice has begun human right training programs. The training is given with a new manual produced by the ministry that includes in its provisions the rights of women and children.
He pointed out that, the ministry of justice has passed a regulation that allows women and children to receive proper justice with out discrimination and prejudice. Similarly the vise minister announced the establishment of an annual evaluation and monetary mechanism to ensure that women and children cases receive due and prompt attention in the judicial process. The vice-minister ended his presentation by acknowledging that, though important steps have been taken to improve the condition of women both at the level of their standing in the ministry and as citizens that seek justice, more needs to be done to narrow the gender gap in the domain of legal justice in Ethiopia.
After a fruitful discussion, the participants of the Gender Talk forum expressed their gratitude to the vise-minister for the efforts the ministry made to empower women and reduce gender inequality in the legal system.
Some of the concerns raised by the participants were: the limitedness of women judges, the size of the budget allocated to the women's bureau the ministry, the level of manpower, the number of women in law enforcement.
In his response the vice Minster pointed out the difficulty of recruiting trained women in the country, retreated the problem of finding qualified women to fill the 30% quota reserved for female employees. Concerning the issue of raising the number of women judges, he drew attention to the fact that this question is technically out side the jurisdiction of the ministry of justice for it concerns the judiciary and House of Representatives. Finally the vice Minster reminded the house that the problems raised in the discussion and the urgent question of narrowing the gendr gap in the legal system is when government and women organizations work hand in hand. It is he stressed only through partnership that the condition of women will improve in this and other areas.
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