Abstract:
Though the judiciary is inherently given the power to interpret and apply law so as to dispense
justice, their institutional as well as the individual independence of judges working in judiciary
is vital to achieve the ultimate purpose. States have extra human rights obligation not to violate
the fundamental rights of suspected and arrested persons. The judicial independence has a great
role in protecting the human rights of suspected. However, in the study area, corruption,
interferences from other organs, opaque appointment procedure and lack of budgetary autonomy
are problems in ensuring independence of court. Therefore, this study intended to examine the
context, trend and practices of judicial independence in Gamo Zone. A qualitative legal research
methodology was adopted and data was collected from judges, court presidents, public
prosecutors and private lawyers through open ended questionnaires and interviews. Both content
and thematic qualitative data analyzing techniques were used to analyses the collected data. The
study revealed that, interferences from other bodies of government, corruption, non-transparent
procedure of selection and appointment of judges & discipline management; unconstitutional
budget allocation & misuse of budget and toothless JAC in ensuring judicial independence are
the main findings. Therefore, the effective implementation of the principle of judicial
independence in Gamo zone is highly required. It is also suggested that courts have to be
reformed in holistically to be modernized justice rendering institution.
