COMMUNITY SERVICE AND WORKING IN PARTNERSHIP

The Law School is well known for its community services. Through its Free Legal Aid Center, and financial support from Action Aid Ethiopia, Northern Branch Office at Bahir Dar, it has given free legal aid service to a number of needy persons in and around Bahir Dar. Women, people with disability, people living with HIV/AIDS and generally those who couldn't afford hiring their own lawyer or paying for legal advice have benefited much from the Free Legal Aid Center of the Law School.

The School, in collaboration with Action Aid Ethiopia Northern Branch at Bahir Dar and Amhara Mass Media Agency, has given continuous legal awareness to the public at large through radio program. Also, in the past, the School, working in partnership with Amhara Regional State Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission, with Amhara Development Association (ADA) and with Action Professionals' Association for the People (APAP) and the Law Students' Union (LSU), had given trainings on various issues related to corruption, budget, gender and human rights to the wider community living in the urban and rural areas of the Amhara Regional State. It intends to reinforce such partnership endavour and enhance its community service. Arrangements are well underway to accomplish further useful activities in partnership with the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission.

The Law School has built a good culture of working in partnership with many governmental and non-governmental institutions. Apart from its close ties to the respective Justice Bureau, Supreme Court, Police Commission, Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission and Prison Commission of the various regional states, especially of the Amhara Regional State; it has well established relationships with the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission, the FDRE Institution of the Ombudsman, Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopian Justice and Legal System Research Institute, and Amhara National Regional State Women's Affairs Bureau. In partnership with and with financial support of the Institution of the Ombudsman, Amhara Regional State Justice Bureau, Amhara National Regional State Women's Affairs Bureau and Action Aid Ethiopia (Northern Branch), it has conducted various research works on various themes.

The Law School has been a beneficiary of Nuffic /NPT-Ethiopia/ Project. With a grant from the Netherlands Government, it has upgraded a substantial number of its staff qualification from LLB degree to LLM degree; and, it has acquired a lot of valuable and up-to-date law books from Europe. Through a subscription of this project, there is a good deal of an