Ethiopia urged to mandate body cameras and recorded interrogations for justice system reform

The author contends that while modern society is extensively documented, records often become unavailable when the state exercises its power to arrest, detain, and interrogate individuals. This lack of documentation forces courts to reconstruct events from conflicting recollections, leading to evidentiary ambiguity. The article highlights that these technologies are not merely administrative modernizations but constitutional issues, essential for proving that the state's coercive powers are used in accordance with the law.

Ethiopia's FDRE Constitution, under Articles 19, 20, and 21, guarantees rights such as protection against coercion and the right to a fair trial, but these rights are difficult to verify without reliable records. The author points out an inconsistency in Ethiopian law, where electronic evidence from digital devices has stricter reliability requirements than confessions obtained during interrogations. While acknowledging resource and financial constraints, the article suggests that the cost of evidentiary ambiguity, including disputed confessions, appeals, and false accusations, outweighs the cost of implementing recording technologies.

The Addis Ababa Revenue Bureau's use of 280 body-worn cameras for its fie