Directors Message

Justice sector of any country plays a great role in implementing constitutional principles such as rule of law, protecting human rights, enhancing peace and security thereby realizing socio economic development. This presupposes building professionals who are competent, ethical, and serving attitude. In this regard, mainly before 1991, the Ethiopian justice system in general and the Oromia Justice system in particular had serious problems as the professionals were not well trained, had low serving attitude, and showed prevalent unethical behaviors. To solve these problems, the country has launched and implemented comprehensive justice reform programs. One of these reform programs is the establishment of justice sectors professionals training and legal research Institutes both at federal and regional levels of the country. Oromia Regional State Justice Sector Professionals Training and Legal Research Institute is one of these Institutes established in 2007 by Regulation No99/2007. The main reason for establishing the Institute is to support justice system of the region through training and research.

The training wing of the Institute has two forms: in-service and pre-service. The in-service training, which is on job training, has in turn two aspects: long term and short term. Duration wise, the long term training lasts for five months, and the short term training lasts from 1-5 days. So far, the Institute trained 2,178 professionals in the long term in-service program and 33,289 professionals in short term in-service program. The pre-service training is given for first degree in law graduates. Its main objective is to improve the skill, professional ethics and serving attitude of the trainees who are newly joining the justice sector. In this program, the Institute has trained 2,422 professionals since its establishment.

The other major activity of the Institute is conducting legal researches on issues and practices that hinder the delivery of speedy and quality justice in the region. So far, the Institute has conducted researches on 50 titles and come up with useful recommendations for the improvement of regional justice system. Moreover, the Institute has been publishing a law journal known by the name Oromia Law Journal once a year. Up to now, six volumes were issued without interruption and the seventh volume is on process. The journal is serving as a forum where both legal practitioners and academicians come together to exchange their experiences and debate on different legal issues. It is also serving as a tool for disseminating our own research findings.

In spite of the above achievements, there are different challenges the Institute is facing. Of these challenges, lack of trainers and researchers in the desired quantity and quality, and lack of a building that host the trainees by serving as dormitory are the prominent ones. At present, the Institute is working in collaboration with concerned stakeholders so as to avert both challenges.

, Director