Under the Ethiopian Criminal Justice System, delivery of criminal justice is a process. It starts from setting justice on motion. Some person or government official may give information about the commission or omission of a crime. The person need not necessarily be the victim of a crime. He or she may be any concerned person or whistle blower. After the police get such information, the police start criminal investigation. In principle and from the point of view of human rights, no one should be arrested before the necessary investigation is done and the appropriate evidence is collected. The arrest if necessary should follow the investigation. Thus, investigation should, in principle, precede arrest. However there may be some cases that the suspect is under custody until the completion of the investigation. Article 59(1) of the criminal procedure code rules “The court before which the arrested person is brought (article 29) shall decide whether such person shall be kept in custody
Ethiopia has declared state of emergency a number of times. The Ethiopian constitution allows the declaration of state of emergency when man made or natural disasters occour.Currently,the Ethiopian government has declared a state of emergency on Amhara region. The main feature of state of emergency is that some rights may be limited to enable the restoration of law and order.Under Ethiopian constitution some rights cannot be limited or violated even during state of emergency. Furthermore,some procedures previously followed to ensure due process of law may not be followed during state of emergency. This opens a hole for a potential violation of human rights if the implementation process of the state of emergency is not done with due care. That is why a board that follows up implementation of state of emergency is established every time a state of emergency is declared.