CJPO in brief
The Federal Supreme Court Child Justice Project Office (hereinafter referred as “CJPO”) has been established in 1999 with the objective of enhancing the protection of children and the realization of their rights. It has been one of the core institutional measures of the government of Ethiopia to guarantee the realization of the best interest of the child in the process of administering justice for children. CJPO follows four interrelated and interlinked strategies in implementing multiple of activities: changing system and structure, insuring free legal aid, build capacities, do public awareness and promoting multi stakeholders approach in the administration of justice to children.
Since its establishment, CJPO has been able to register commendable achievements. It has established more than 79 child friendly benches in at federal and regional courts: established and integrated social services within the child justice administration to ensure that the best interest of the child is given primacy in court rulings develop service standard manuals for harmonizing and standardizing service to children, established the Children Legal Protection Center (“CLPC”). In this regard CLPCs are functioning at four branch office in Addis Ababa. Replicating the CLPC to other regions will be something to be worked in coordination with the regions. CJPO has also been active participation in a number of external initiatives network has it relates to child justice and child protection. The resources required for the implementation of the multiple activities of the CJPO has been mobilized from development partners. Among the development partners which can be cited to have significant contribution in supporting the program include UNICEF, The African Child Policy Forum, Save the Children, UNFPA, and UNDP. However, CJPO believes in strengthening partnership in this regard for the purpose of mobilizing financial and technical resource for scaling up and sustaining systems on child justice