Ethiopian State Minister for Justice to hold free public seminar

Media Release, Tuesday 29 April 2008

Dr Hashim Tewfik, the State Minister for Justice and Deputy Attorney General in Ethiopia will hold a twilight seminar at the Melbourne Law School on Thursday May 1.

In the seminar, Constitutions and Democracy-Building in Africa, Dr Tewfik will speak on constitutions and democracy-building in Africa in general and in Ethiopia in particular.

Dr Tewfik, who obtained his doctorate at the Melbourne Law School, is responsible as a State Minister for the prosecution and civil litigation division of the Ministry of Justice in Ethiopia. He is also Deputy Attorney General and a member of the Constitutional Enquiry Council, which is a quasi-judicial body responsible for investigating constitutional law issues. He arrives as a guest of the Law and Development Research Programme, located within the University of Melbourne’s Institute for International Law and the Humanities (IILAH).

Dr Tewfik has a keen interest in the relationship between law and development in his country and in the ways in which development assistance influences his day to day work. Dr Tewfik is currently collaborating with Dr Jennifer Beard, a co-director of the law and development research programme in a proposed research project that will investigate legal interventions into the justice system in Ethiopia.

Professor Cheryl Saunders, Associate Dean (JD) and Laureate Professor at the University of Melbourne, supervised Dr Tewfik’s PhD. “It is great to have someone of Dr Tewfik’s standing and integrity, with his wealth of international expertise, as a visitor in the Melbourne Law School; and he is doubly welcome as a former graduate and colleague.”

Limited interviews are available. Please contact Vesna Stefanovski below.

Constitutions and Democracy-Building in Africa
Dr Hashim Tewfik, State Minister for Justice and Deputy Attorney General, Ethiopia
Time: 5.30pm to 7.30pm
Venue: Level 9, Room 920,
Melbourne Law School
185 Pelham St, Carlton
Contact: law-iilah@unimelb.edu.au
For more event information: iilah.unimelb.edu.au/download.cfm?DownloadFile=4AA63C24-1422-207C-BA32BBF9F0C88B5E