The Ethiopian Human Rights commission and its contribution to the protection of Human Rights and building of good governance: challenges and prospectp

The nature of the environment in which national human rights institutions (NHRIs) operate determines their effectiveness in building a human rights culture. NHRIs operating in a non-democratic tradition reflect the system itself since the nature of the social, political and legal environment in such system contains informal constraints affecting their overall activities. The Ethiopian Human Rights Commission (Commission) was set up as part of democratic institutions following regime change in the early 1990s. It embarked on discharging functions vested in it in a framework that is not favorable for such institution to be effective. Lack of democratic tradition and good governance, poor culture of respect for human rights, weak institutions, and financial constraints are among the major hurdles limiting the effectiveness of the Commission. Against the prevailing environment, the article examines the effectiveness of the Commission in meeting its objectives on the basis of the evaluation of the practice of the Commission since it started its operation in 2004. Specifically, the performance of the Commission so far in the areas of promotion (sensitization and education) and protection (complaint-handling), and monitoring of human rights are reviewed to see if the institution is effective in defending human rights and thereby building good governance. After highlighting its success story, the major worrying trends and setbacks in developing a culture of respect for human rights and building good governance are explored. Before doing so, the article offers an overview of the establishment, structure, mandate and power of the Commission. Also, a concise statement on the linkage between the overall objectives of NHRIs in general and of the Commission in particular and good governance is offered to indicate that the institution is meant to serve as one of the institutional mechanisms to bring about good governance in the nation

Implementing Public Health Regulations in Developing Countries: Lessons from the OECD Countries

The enforcement of public health standards is a common problem in many developing countries. Public health agencies lack sufficient resources and, too often, enforcement mechanisms rely on slow and erratic judicial systems. These limitations can make traditional public health regulations difficult to implement. In this article, we examine innovative approaches to the implementation of public health regulations that have emerged in recent years within OECD countries. These approaches aim to improve compliance with health standards, while reducing dependence on both the legal system and the administrative resources of public health agencies. This article begins by discussing some traditional forms of public health regulations; these regulations include administrative searches and inspections as well as licensing measures. Within these traditional forms of public health regulation, there are several ways of improving compliance without substantially increasing administrative costs. These measures include public disclosure and several types of sanctions, which may escalate in severity as an actor continues to flout the public health regulation. In addition to such traditional measures, we discuss more creative approaches to reducing dependence on the judiciary and reducing administrative costs. Dependence on the judiciary can be reduced through increased reliance on alternative dispute resolution methods, such as mediation and arbitrations, as well as through the use of a public health Ombudsman. Administrative costs could also potentially be reduced through the creative use of public-private cooperation measures, such as negotiated rulemaking and self-regulating codes of conduct. Developing countries may find some useful lessons in the innovative approaches described; however, these approaches will likely need to be adapted to fit each country’s particular institutional setting

National human rights institutions and access to justice: the role and practice of the human rights commission of Ethiopia in advancing access to justice

National human rights institutions (NHRIs) are quasi-judicial bodies set up specifically for the purpose of promoting and protecting human rights. Among their core functions included are the sensitization of and research and debate on human rights, and investigation of complaints involving human rights issues. As part of their mandate, NHRIs should promote and facilitate complainant’s access to rights and remedies, including the ones offered by themselves and remedies that exist elsewhere, such as courts of law. Provision of free legal assistance and dissemination of information on human rights by NHRIs helps the poor to access justice, removing financial and information obstacles hampering them from doing so. Set up in 2000 pursuant to the FDRE Constitution, the Human Rights Commission of Ethiopia has been trying to promote and protect human rights. One of its modest achievements is its attempt to promote human rights through sensitization campaigns and to reach out to the poor via legal aid centres so that such people could access justice. In that regard, the Commission has been undertaking various training and education activities. Also, it has been providing legal counsel and aid to poor litigants despite the fact that the enabling statute makes no explicit mention of such scheme. In the protection realm, the Commission has been investigating complaints lodged to it, helping citizens to get remedies in rather limited cases. In this piece attempt is made to review the Commission’s endeavour in promoting and protecting human rights and thereby cast light on its contribution in advancing access to justice. It examines the Commission’s practice based on promotional as well as protection activities undertaken by the institution since it commenced discharging its function in 2005. Among questions to be investigated in the study included are the following. In the face of the bulk of population that are unaware of the existence and/or the nature of laws and the means to vindicate them and given the fact that there are few effective methods to create and build awareness, or to provide legal services, what measures have been taken by the Commission, as a complementary body, to fill the void? Given the wide-spread problems facing vulnerable groups to access justice in the nation, has the institution tried to reach out to such group? Does it manage to put in place effective strategies that streamline vulnerable group in its operational procedures? The examination of these questions relies on the review of the Commission’s promotional strategies and tools and documents produced for such purpose, investigation of enabling legislation, relevant literature, and interview. Before delving into examining the Commission’s role to enhance access to justice, it is important to offer background information on the establishment process, structure, mandate, and enforcement powers of the institution

Live Query - Visualized Process Analysis

Business process management (BPM) becomes continuously challenging through a steadily increasing number and even more complex processes. For enabling an effective and efficient control of business processes, (semi-)automatic approaches are necessary as a supporting means. However, these approaches are often hardly applicable in practice since they lack a broad applicability or an acceptable ease of use. This work aims to close this gap by providing an approach that supports a widely applicable, (semi-)automatic analysis of business process models and makes the analysis comprehensible using a graphical visualization

Juridical Analysis of Tax Criminal Law Enforcement: an Overview of Legal Regulations and its Implementation in Indonesia

The purpose of this research is to conduct a juridical analysis of criminal law enforcement in the field of taxation in Indonesia. The focus of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of legislation and its implementation in combating tax crimes. The research method used is a normative juridical approach by examining legislation related to tax crimes, including tax laws, government regulations, and relevant policies. Additionally, an analysis of the legal practices and enforcement of tax crimes in Indonesia is conducted. The research findings indicate that the legislation in the field of taxation has a strong foundation to address tax crimes. However, there are several challenges in its implementation, such as the complexity of tax regulations, lack of adequate human resources and technology, and corruption issues that can affect tax law enforcement. In this context, the research provides recommendations to strengthen the system of criminal law enforcement in tax matters. The recommendations include improving coordination among relevant institutions, enhancing the capacity of human resources in the field of taxation, utilizing information technology to support supervision and tax law enforcement, and increasing transparency and accountability in the process of tax law enforcement. This research is expected to provide a better understanding of the regulation of tax crimes and contribute to the policy and the legislative reforms related to tax law enforcement in Indonesia

Налогообложение в реформах управления государственными финансами

Общепринятые теоретические подходы к реформированию государственной экономики, как правило, вполне пригодны для целей управления изменениями налоговых систем и их составляющих. В частности, в налоговом администрировании особенно проблемным представляется всемерное обеспечение реализации принципов горизонтальной справедливости, а также внедрение подходов, при которых для налогоплательщиков выполнение обязательств по внесению платежей становится более выгодным, чем уклонение от их уплаты. Во многих развивающихся странах неспособность правительства в связи с политическими причинами реализовать задекларированные программы часто является основным препятствием социально-экономического развития. Имплементация многих инициатив по реформированию не всегда успешна из-за отсутствия четких стратегий в государственной политике структурных изменений. Широко известны модели применения новых подходов в системах управления государственными финансами, в частности, при формировании и движении доходов, расходов и долгов. При стандартном анализе налоговых систем часто игнорируется результативность налогового администрирования, связанная с трансакционными издержками и влиянием теневой экономики: речь идет о затратах плательщиков обязательных платежей и сборов и налоговых органов, а также об иных, не подлежащих количественной оценке составляющих налогообложения, включая мотивацию нарушений законодательства. Большое значение имеет налоговое поведение, предотвращение оппортунизма, регулирование способов публичного раскрытия информации, применение системных инструментов взимания налогов. При разработке детальных планов реформирования необходимо стремиться к максимальной эффективности непрерывных циклов движения финансовых ресурсов в доходах и расходах, а также учитывать угрозы нарушения бюджетных процессов, при этом одним из главных должен быть вопрос выбора целей и приоритетов. Известны случаи, когда донорское сообщество и международные организации настаивали на необходимости внедрения определенных образцов «лучшей практики», особенно если реформирование осуществлялось при их финансовой поддержке. Отдавая должное многим позитивным примерам, следует иметь в виду, что для налоговой системы каждой страны характерны специфические черты, поэтому эффективность ее реформирования во многом будет зависеть от учета местных особенностей. В целом задача управления изменениями в системах государственных финансов усложняется внешними и внутренними факторами неопределенности, поэтому при любых обстоятельствах необходимо обеспечивать непрерывность бюджетного процесса и исполнение государством своих конституционных обязательств. Регуляторная функция экономики должна быть направлена на реализацию целей устойчивого экономического развития, соответственно, в рамках налоговой системы, как стратегического элемента госрегулирования, должны работать эффективные механизмы налогов, сборов, а также льгот и преференций во взаимосвязи с расходными статьями, трансфертами и субсидиями.Generally, standard theoretical approaches to reforming national economy are quite usable for goals of managing changes of taxation systems and their components. In particular, of most problematic issue for tax administration is all-round provision of implementing principles of horizontal justice, as well as introducing the approaches which allow the execution of commitments on making payments by taxpayers to be more profitable than evasion. In many developing countries, due to political reasons the government’s inability to implement their declared programs is frequently the main obstacle to improving the socio-economic progress. Implementation of many reform initiatives is not always successful due to absence of clear strategies in governmental policy of structural transformations. There are wide known models of applying new approaches in systems of public finance management (PFM), particularly, in regard of formation and dynamics of revenues, expenses, debts. The standard analysis of tax systems ignores, as a rule, the efficiency of tax administration connected with transaction costs and shadow economy influence: the issue is about the expenses, on one hand, for payers of obligatory payments and levies, and on the other hand, for taxation authorities, as well as about the other taxation components, non-subject to quantitative assessment, including motivation of breaching legislation. Of great significance is tax behavior, prevention of opportunism, regulation of not only tax rates and taxation basis but also of ways of public information accessibility, application of systemic toolkits of tax collection. While developing detailed plans of reforming, it is necessary to strain after maximum efficiency of continuous cycles of financial resource movements in terms of revenues and expenditures, as well as to consider challenges for interruption of the budget processes. At that, one of the main issue is, obviously, selection of targets and priorities. There are known cases, when the donor community and international organizations insist on “the best practices” introduction, especially if the reforming is carried out with their financial support. In justice to numerous positive examples, it should be borne in mind that each taxation system of every country is characterized by their specific traits, so the efficiency of its reforming will at large depend on considering local features. On the whole, the task of managing changes in the public finance systems is getting more complicated in the context of external and internal factors of uncertainty. Thus, in any circumstances it is vital to ensure continuity of the budget process, as well as execution by the state of its constitutional obligations. The regulatory potential of economy should be focused on implementing sustainable economic development goals. Accordingly, in the taxation system framework, as a strategic tool for governmental regulation, there must function efficient mechanisms of taxes and levies, as well as benefits and preferences in coordination with expenditure items, transfers and subsidies

Measuring progress towards the application of freedom of association and collective bargaining rights: A tabular presentation of the findings of the ILO supervisory system

This document is part of a digital collection provided by the Martin P. Catherwood Library, ILR School, Cornell University, pertaining to the effects of globalization on the workplace worldwide. Special emphasis is placed on labor rights, working conditions, labor market changes, and union organizing.ILO_MeasuringProgressTowardApplicationofFreedomofAssociation_CollectiveBargainingRights.pdf: 636 downloads, before Oct. 1, 2020