Evaluating the application of human rights principles in crime investigation in Ethiopia : a case study of the Addis Ababba city police

Abstract

In any society the police are organized with the responsibility of keeping peace and order, ensuring the rule of law, justice, prevention of crime as well as protection of human rights. Regardless of the circumstances in which the police find them, they should act towards every human being with a sense of duty and care for human rights; it is the responsibility of the police to conduct the process of arrest, search and seizure according to the law with no neglect of duties. The police are expected to comply with the arrest, search and seizure procedures designed to ensure the protection of human rights. Nevertheless, usually, the task of investigation is vulnerable to human right violation. This is particularly true in the case of the developing countries where the process of democratization is so infant that most of them not only lack the required level of awareness/understanding pertaining to the human right principles but also the necessary institutional mechanisms that contribute to the proper application of human right principles are missing. The report of the Ethiopian Federal Police Inspection Service conducted in the year 2003 indicated that there were some suspects arrested without court warrant and with the existence of reasonable doubt for their guiltiness. Moreover, findings of a research conducted in the same year on certain Addis Ababa sub-city police stations also clearly indicate this fact. The objective of the this research is to evaluate the extent to which crime investigator, who are duty bearers in the Addis Ababa city police, adhere to the human right principles pertaining to the rights of suspected, accused and arrested person that are recognized in pertinent international instruments and enshrined in the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia (FDRE) constitution and other related laws of the country while fulfilling their duties and responsibilities throughout the crime investigation process. Specifically the study is also aimed at exploring the form and type of commonly violated human right, if any and the determinant factors behind the respective types of human right violation by crime investigation belong to the Addis Ababa police .Methodologically the study followed and is mainly relied on the qualitative empirical approach to social science research.