Federal Supreme Court Cassation Decisions on Child Rights in Light of the CRC and Ethiopian Laws

Abstract

Even though Ethiopia acceded to the Convention on the Rights of the Child (the CRC) about eight months after it entered into force, the Federal Supreme Court (FSC) Cassations Bench took a long time to cite provisions from the CRC in its decisions. The Supreme Court has recently started citing provisions from the CRC to substantiate its binding interpretation and decisions. In its cassation division, the Ethiopian Supreme Court is mandated to render binding interpretation of legal provisions as stipulated under Article 10(2) of the Federal Courts Proclamation No. 1234/2013. So far, the Federal Supreme Court has published 25 volumes on different subject matters including family, criminal, civil, labour, and tort cases. This article explores the influence of CRC provisions in interpreting children’s rights before the Supreme Court’s cassation division. Moreover, this article assesses the attention given to CRC’s provisions in the Supreme Court’s binding interpretation process and decisions. The article also notes the significance of binding interpretations of child rights in light of their contribution to the development of the scope of legal protection bestowed toward children's rights domestically.