Arba Minch field trip - DEP students reflect 4

Arba Minch street scene

In our final post from the Arba Minch field trip, two more DEP students reflect on their experience, focusing on their visits to a police detention centre and prison:

James Machak Chany Liah writes:

This being my first time ever in the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, several questions with no immediate answers lingered in my mind, which of course kept me awake for the whole night of my flight from London to Addis Ababa. When the plane touched down at Bole international airport, even before proceeding to Arba Minch, my final destination, I was having an open mind and flexibility to accommodate all the new things my eyes came across. Beside the diverse natural resources and the hospitality of the Ethiopian people, what impressed me most was the nature in which police conduct themselves at the detention centres. I have seen a general improvement compared to other East African police. The Ethiopian police do not have machine guns, they are more professional, they receive us with a lot of professionalism. Despite general health problems such as lack of water and congestion inside the cells that were mentioned by the detainees to me. those are things to do with budgets which could be beyond the police control. The trip was very educative and interactive.

Arba Minch field trip - DEP students reflect 3

Dina Black writes:

On Day 1 of our project, we received a

Dean Dersolegn

briefing from Dean Dersolegn Yeneabat who told us about the Arba Minch University (AMU) Law School’s free legal aid services. Professors Richard Carver and Lisa Handley explained to us the research topic and interview techniques. We discussed various research methods. The goal of free legal aid services is to provide access to justice for vulnerable people; most of the clients are too poor to pay for legal assistance. More than half of the beneficiaries are women with children. The Ethiopian Human Rights Commission (EHRCO) encouraged and financed the University’s Law School to set up a free legal aid programme in 2011 as part of its community service. The providers include members of staff from AMU Law School, students and middle-level legal professionals.

Arba Minch field trip - DEP students reflect 2

In the second of our reflections from students on the Arba Minch field trip, Hauwa Suleiman writes about our hosts in the Law School:

The Law School at Arba Minch University in Ethiopia is unlike any I have ever seen. It is as awe-inspiring as the rest of the country. Diverse in culture yet united in their love for country, like the national language Amharic which brings almost 60 dialects of the region together. The multilingual staff is so knowledgeable and eager to learn more. Most of them speak at least three languages but are so humble in their willingness for partnerships that strengthen us all. So full of energy and open to new ideas, there is a certain buzz while being in their midst that makes you want to dare more to do more.

Arba Minch field trip - DEP students reflect 1

Over the next few days, students from the Development and Emergency Practice Masters programme will be blogging about their field trip to Arba Minch in Ethiopia, where they worked on a capacity assessment of Arba Minch University's legal aid programme. First, Lindsay Slark writes about Arba Minch itself:

Arba Minch in the national language Amharic means forty springs. There are in fact more than forty springs but this represents only one reason to visit the region. Arba Minch has two lakes, Abaya and Chamo, separated by a land bridge called the Bridge of God. These lakes are stunningly beautiful and teeming with life, both wild and tame. The fishermen make their living on the lake, despite the dangers of the wild animals who also seek a meal. Here the crocodiles go to market, the hippos bathe with their young and the birds snatch fish from the fisherman.

Update from Arba Minch

The joint class of Arba Minch and Oxford Brookes students at the Abaya campus

Richard Carver writes:

The joint group of students from Oxford Brookes and Arba Minch are out doing interviews this afternoon. Over the past two days they have been gathering information on the Arba Minch law school’s legal aid programme. By the end of the week they will prepare a proposal for a full capacity assessment. Today they are interviewing both clients of the programme and legal aid providers.

This morning’s class was a detailed preparation for two monitoring visits to be conducted tomorrow: to a police station and the local prison. There was guidance on the issues to be looked at, as well as the dos and don’ts of visiting closed institutions.

Students from CENDEP’s Development and Emergency Practice Masters programme are in Arba Minch under the partnership between the two universities. Click here for more details.

DEP field trip to Arba Minch, Ethiopia

Richard Carver writes:

I am writing this in Arba Minch in southern Ethiopia. A group of students from the Development and Emergency Practice Masters programme arrived yesterday at the start of a field trip. This is the latest, and biggest development, in the partnership between Oxford Brookes University and Arba Minch University.

First some history: the Law School at Arba Minch approached CENDEP in 2017 for support and advice in developing two human rights Masters programmes – an LLM in human rights law and an MA in human rights and security. We provided them with teaching materials and readings. When the programmes launched, I was invited to come and teach a module (on human rights and vulnerability) to students from both programmes. This is now my third visit to Arba Minch and I have been spending the last few days teaching the Ethiopian Masters students.