Public Trust in Judicial System of Ethiopia and Its Implications for Peacebuilding: The Case of Federal Supreme Court
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Date
2019-06
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Addis Ababa Unversity
Abstract
One of the major goals of the judiciary is to resolve disputes in ways that lead disputant to
accept and be willing to abide by the decisions, restore a former relationship and help to keep
domestic peace .If judiciaries are not accepted by the citizens and if there is a lack of trust
cannot perform their essential functions, restore a relationship and it became difficult to build
peace in the society. Hence the research aimed to examine the public trust based on the
procedural fairness in the federal Supreme Court and its implication for peacebuilding, by
identifying major issues which affect public trust in the FDRE Supreme Court and discuss public
trust implication to peacebuilding. In the study, mixed methods of research design were engaged.
Data were collected through interviews from key Informants and through questioner filled by
experienced court users, the finding of the study shows that the public has the higher perception
lack of judicial independence; lack of behavioral accountability, transparency and accessibility
these leads the court users to a high level of distrust. The level of public trust has positive and
negative implication to peacebuilding, if the public has trusted to judiciary system cooperate
with the court, respect, obey with bench commands and verdicts, easily accept even negative
outcomes so it restores former relationship of disputant but if the public lose trust by the
judiciary system disputant parties they cannot accept the outcomes so they go to take Measure by
their own hand so it affect their personal relationship and easily escalate conflict through
community so the court must train the judges to how the procedural fairness affect public trust
because fair procedures, with the equal possibility for all parties to discuss real issues with the
judiciary, have an imperative to influence public trust more than rigidly consistent verdict
practices for the peacebuilding process to take place the approach should be based on building a
trustable judicial system, this helps to build positive relationships and social structures that
allow the face of different social thinking and encouraging positive group unity.
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Keywords
Judiciary system, Peacebuilding, Publictrust