Title: Enhancing Access to Justice through Customary Judiciary 

Background: This project aimed to enhance the influence of customary law, an important cultural and political aspect of life for the rural poor and bridge the gap with the conventional justice system. The customary laws of the Guraghe people are largely present in oral forms, so codifying these laws will not only have the purpose of maintaining the cultural laws of the nation but also have a corollary effect of creating access to justice to the rural poor in the project area and augmenting the research on customary laws of Ethiopia.

The project: The overall objective of this project was to revive the operation of Gordena Sera system of traditional local governance in an effective and sustainable way and thereby to bridge the shortfall in access to formal law in the Zone. It aimed to enable the Kistane (a linguistic and religious group of Southern Ethiopia) in Guraghe to exercise their constitutional right to promote and develop their own culture. The project will undertake seminal legal research and codify the Gordena Sera in a manner that complies with the constitution and other laws, so as it can be practiced in customary courts, making justice accessible to marginalized and vulnerable social groups like the poor, physically disabled, elders and women. The project is expected to enhance the rule of law and good governance, particularly in the area of family and succession laws.

Mwananchi is also supporting projects on customary law in Uganda.

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