Last Change:
04/30/2024
Criminal Code of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia 2004, Proclamation No. 414/2004
Year: 2005
Type: Domestic law
Rights Category: Work & Workplace rights
Description
The 2005 Criminal Code came into force with the purpose of ensuring order, peace and the security of the state, its people and inhabitants for the public good. Specifically, it is enacted with a view to provide effective protection to right to life, the security of the person and liberty, the right to protection against bodily harm, the right to liberty and freedom from cruel, inhuman, degrading treatment. It contains extensive provisions concerning the protection against gender-based violence (GBV), protection of children against violence, prohibition of different forms of Harmful Traditional Practices (HTPs). It further prohibits homicide, domestic violence, early marriage, bigamy, rape and sexual outrages, trafficking in women and children, forced prostitution, physical violence within marriage or in an irregular union etc. The Criminal Code provisions are equally applicable to refugees to ensure their protection.
Selected provisions
(1) Whoever, not being authorized by law so to do, prevents another from moving freely within the territory of Ethiopia, is punishable with simple imprisonment or fine. (2) Where the criminal is a public servant, he shall be punishable under the relevant prolusion of this Code (Art. 407).
(1) Prisoners of different sexes shall serve their sentences in different prisons and, in default of this, prisoners of different sexes shall be kept in different sections of the same prison and shall not be allowed to mix with prisoners of the other sex. (2) Prisoners who are sentenced to rigorous imprisonment or special confinement shall be kept separate from prisoners under the age of eighteen years or from adult prisoners who are serving a sentence of simple imprisonment. (3) Prisoners awaiting judgment or persons detained for civil debts, or public servants who, by virtue of their official duty, had contact with prisoners and who are imprisoned for a crime or detained for civil debt shall be kept separate from prisoners serving sentence.
Any public servant charged with the arrest, custody, supervision, escort or interrogation of a person who is under suspicion, under arrest, summoned to appear before a Court of justice, detained or serving a sentence, who, in the performance of his duties, improperly induces or gives a promise, threatens or treats the person concerned in an improper or brutal manner, or in a manner which is incompatible with human dignity or his office, especially by the use of blows, cruelty or physical or mental torture, be it to obtain a statement or a confession, or to any other similar end, or to make him give a testimony in a favourable manner, is punishable with simple imprisonment or fine, or in serious cases, with rigorous imprisonment nor exceeding ten years and fine. Nothing in this Article shall affect the concurrent application of the relevant provision where the act constitutes an additional crime.
If a person compels another by intimidation, violence, fraud or any other unlawful means to accept a particular employment or particular conditions of employment, or to refuse or withhold his labour, with the object of imposing on an employer by force the acceptance or modification of terms of employment is punishable, upon complaint, with simple imprisonment at least three months, or fine.
Whoever: a) forcibly enslaves another, sells, alienates, pledges or buys him, or trades or traffics in or exploits him in any manner; or b) keeps or maintains another in a condition of slavery, even in a disguised form, is punishable with rigorous imprisonment from five years to twenty years, and fine not exceeding fifty thousand Birr.
Whoever intentionally or by negligence causes bodily injury to another or impairs his health, by whatever means or in any manner, is punishable in accordance with the provisions of this Chapter. These provisions embrace all manner of bodily assaults, blows, wounds, maiming, injuries or harm, and all damage to the physical or mental health of an individual.
Whoever circumcises a woman of any age, is punishable with simple imprisonment for not less than three months, or fine not less than five hundred Birr.
The relevant provision of this Code (Arts. 555 - 560) shall apply to a
person who, by doing violence to a marriage partner or a person
cohabiting in an irregular union, causes grave or common injury to his
/her physical or mental health
(1) Whoever by violence, threat, deceit, fraud, kidnapping or by the
giving of money or other advantage to the person having control
over a woman or a child, recruits, receives, hides, transports, exports or imports a woman or a minor for the purpose of forced
labour,
is punishable with rigorous imprisonment from five years to twenty years, and fine not exceeding fifty thousand Birr.
(2) Whoever knowingly carries off, or transports, whether by land,
by sea or by air, the victim mentioned in sub-article (1), with the
purpose stated therein, or conducts, or aids such traffic, is liable to the penalty prescribed under sub-article (1) above.