News Analysis: Rights Commission recommends several changes to improve draft Criminal Procedure Code
By Siyanne Mekonnen
Addis Abeba, January 14/2021 – The Ethiopian Human Rights Commission (EHRC) said that the newly drafted Criminal Procedure Code and Evidence Law presented to the House of People’s representatives (HoPR) for discussion and approval needs to be improved in accordance with human rights laws and principles.
On September 26 last year, during its 90th regular meeting, the Council of Ministers has discussed and referred the draft Criminal Procedure Code, which was last enacted in 1961, to the HoPR. The major reconsideration in the existing Criminal Code is that it follows a unitary system of government and does not take the federal system and international and regional treaties that Ethiopia has since adopted as part of the country’s law into account.