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| Ambassador's Speech>2010 >101208 | |||||
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| at the Inauguration Ceremony for the Alternative Dispute Resolution Center in Bahir Dar, Amhara Reginal State on 4 December, 2010 |
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| H.E. Ato Ayalew, President of Amhara Regional State, Ato Tekebe, Deputy Chief of Regional Supreme Court, W/o Haregewein, Executive Director of EACC, Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen, I am most grateful to all of you for your very warm welcome today. This is my first visit to the Amhara Region, and I have been so anxious to visit Bahir Dar, your capital city. Today, it is a great pleasure for me to attend this inauguration ceremony of the Alternative Dispute Resolution Center here in Bahir Dar. The project was funded by the Japanese Government through the grassroots human security grant-in-aid scheme, amounting to about USD 100000. A brand new center for alternative dispute resolution has now been opened to provide arbitration, mediation and the other related services to citizens. For this purpose a large hall, two mediation rooms, one administration office, two toilets and one storage room have been constructed. Tables, desks, chairs and a cabinet have been supplied as well. This ADR Center is important, and all the citizens in Bahir Dar are potential beneficiaries of the services this Center offers, because so many problems occur today in our daily lives such as domestic violence, divorce, disputes over land, water, business, inheritance and so on. Of course judicial services are available for the purpose of settling disputes. However they are not easily accessible for many people, in particular poor people. It sometimes requires a long wait before cases are settled, and often costs are high. For this reason, the newly opened Center will provide valuable services to many citizens who cannot afford to use court services. Overall, we are very pleased that a better environment will be created for civil society in Bahir Dar as a result of this project. Ladies and Gentlemen, Now let me pay tribute to the Ethiopian Arbitration and Conciliation Center for its excellent management of this project, which has been completed on schedule. This organization implemented the same type of project with funding from the Japanese Government in Arba Minch last year. The ADR Center set up in Arba Minch has handled over 300 arbitration cases so far. Its services are highly appreciated by the people there, in particular the socially weak, vulnerable and poor. EACC already operates this type of center in six regions of Ethiopia. I do hope that this ADR Center in Bahir Dar will do as good a job as the other centers. I also hope that we can work together again for the social development of Ethiopia in the future. |
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