PROCLAMATION No. 699/2010. A PROCLAMATION TO PROVIDE FOR THE PROTECTION OF WITNESSES AND WHISTLEBLOWERS OF CRIMINAL OFFENCES WHEREAS, it is essential to create conducive situations in order to ensure the safety and security of the public by having criminal offenders brought to justice and sustain the right penalty; WHEREAS, providing protection for witnesses and whistleblowers of criminal offences play a significant role for the prevention of crime by uncovering crimes that may cause serious threat to the public; WHEREAS, it is found necessary to legislate the protection systems that need to be put in place in order to protect witnesses and whistleblowers of criminal offense from direct or indirect danger and attack they may face as a consequence thereof and thereby to ensure their safety; NOW, THEREFORE, in accordance with Article 55 (1) of the Constitution of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia it is hereby proclaimed as follows: PART ONE
GENERAL 1. Short Title This Proclamation may be cited as the “Protection of Witnesses and Whistleblowers of Criminal Offences Proclamation No.699/2010.” 2. Definitions In this Proclamation, unless the context otherwise requires: 1/ “whistleblower or witness” means a person who has given or agrees to give information or has acted or agrees to act as a witness in the investigation or trial of an offence; 2/ “protected person” means a witness, a whistleblower or a family member of a witness or a whistleblower who has entered into a protection agreement with the Ministry; 3/ “relocation” means a type of protection measure that involves temporary or permanent resettling of a protected person by the Ministry in a place, within the country or overseas, other than his place of residence or if the protected person is undergoing a penalty entailing loss of liberty, the transfer of him to another penitentiary; 4/ “change of identity” means a type of protection measure that involves modifying and adjusting parts or entire personal data of a protected person to a new situation and may include plastic surgery where necessary; 5/ “surveillance protection” means a type of protection measure that includes the conduct of covert protection of a protected person and surveillance and technical recording, by long-distance communication means, of the premises in which he resides; 6/ “concealing identity and property ownership” means a type of protection measure that involves temporary creation and use of documents relating to the identity and property of a protected person; 7/ “family” includes the spouse or cohabitant, the children, parents, siblings and the children of the spouse or cohabitant of a person; 8/ “Ministry” or “Minister” means the Ministry or Minister of Justice, respectively; 9/ “Commission” means the Federal Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission; 10/ “person” means natural or legal person; 11/ any expression in the masculine gender includes the feminine. 3. Scope of Application 1/ The protection under this Proclamation shall be applicable with respect to testimony or information given or investigation under- taken on a suspect punishable with rigorous imprisonment for ten or more years or with death without having regard to the minimum period of rigorous imprisonment: a)where the offence may not be revealed or established by another means otherwise than by the testimony of the witness or the information of the whistleblower ; and b)where it is believed that a threat of serious danger exists to the life, physical security, freedom or property of the witness, the whistleblower or a family member of the witness or the whistleblower. 2/ Notwithstanding the provisions of sub-article (1) of this Article, the Ministry and the Commission may also extend the protections provided under sub-article (1), (1), (m), (o), (p) and (t) of Article 4 of this Proclamation to witness and whistleblowers who renot protected persons READ FULL TEXT
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AuthorAbrham Yohannes Archives
February 2012
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