The Southern Voices Network for Peacebuilding

Policy Brief No. 24

The Role of Traditional Justice Institutions in Peacebuilding:

Lessons Learned from the Gereb in Northeast Ethiopia
By Awet Halefom Kahsay, Southern Voices Network for Peacebuilding Scholar
April 2022
The inclusion of traditional justice institutions in peacebuilding approaches is essential. They should
be included not because local ownership is a must, though that is true. Nor should they be adopted
simply because it is right to promote localization and culturally-sensitive means of peacebuilding.
Rather, traditional justice institutions merit inclusion based, first and foremost, on their distinct, inherent
advantages for peacebuilding.

First, they are accessible and available in every corner of the continent. For instance, Ethiopia has more
than 80 ethnic groups. Each ethnic group has its own traditional justice institutions to settle disputes and
conflict of an inter-communal or intra-communal nature.

Second, traditional justice institutions go well with the community’s understanding of peace and
conflict. Understanding how communities perceive conflict and then peace is an essential first step in
peacebuilding. Only traditional justice institutions are up to this task. Leaders of these institutions are
ingrained in the culture and values of their communities and thus in a better position to understand the
causes of the conflict and its remedies.

Third, in times of conflict, justice needs to be delivered in a manner that is compatible with the notions
of peace and conflict within the affected communities. Traditional justice systems focus on reestablishing
social harmony, as the conflict is viewed as a breach of the relationship between the two communities.
It recognizes the harm inflicted on the victim and his/her families and the community at large. From
the perpetrator side, traditional justice is about forgiveness and remorse in front of the public and
reintegration of the offender within the society; and a guarantee that the victim and relatives will not
retaliate. In the state justice system, the victim or his/her family is not at the center of the criminal justice
system; it is instead litigation between the state and the perpetrator. Such procedures tend to escalate
the conflict at the community level rather than mitigate it.

Gereb traditional justice institutions are illustrative of how vital, but also underutilized, such institutions
are in peacebuilding in Africa. The Gerebs (A Tigrinya word meaning the “stream/river/forest”) is a
traditional institution found in northern Ethiopia along the border between the Tigray and Afar regions
that works to prevent, manage, and resolve inter-communal conflicts. They comprise representatives of
both communities. The Gereb institutions have their own Sirit (rules) on the use of resources, conflict
prevention, and resolution processes. The Afars are pastoralists and predominantly Muslim, while the

The Southern Voices Network for Peacebuilding: Centering African knowledge and agency is key to building and
sustaining peace in Africa. The Southern Voices Network for Peacebuilding (SVNP) works with the Wilson Center’s
Africa Program to attain the most appropriate, cohesive, and inclusive policy frameworks and approaches for achieving
sustainable peace in Africa. Generously funded by the Carnegie Corporation of New York since its establishment in
2011, the SVNP works to generate African knowledge to inform U.S. and international peacebuilding policies on Africa;
help build the next generation of African peacebuilders through its scholarship program; and create a pan-African
network of African peacebuilding organizations, practitioners, and experts to collaborate and share knowledge, best
practices, and lessons learned on peacebuilding in Africa.

This publication was made possible by a grant from the Carnegie Corporation of New York. The statements made and
views expressed in this paper are solely the responsibility of the author and do not represent the views of the Wilson
Center or the Carnegie Corporation of New York. For more information please visit:
https://www.wilsoncenter.org/the-southern-voices-network-for-peacebuilding
Tigrayans are agrarian and Christian. The most common causes of tension in the area are resource-related
disputes, including over the use of and access to natural resources, such as grazing land or water; and
land demarcations, livestock theft and killing. The worst conflict in the region happened in 1995-1996.
Similar conflicts have been reported in 1998 and 2005-2006; however since 2007, no serious conflict has
been reported.

One of the lessons learned from the Gerebs is that traditional institutions can be vehicles of conflict
prevention. The Gerebs are a means of trust, cooperation, and solidarity between the two communities.
Community-based early communication of potential conflicts is key. A reporting duty is imposed on
members of the community extending to a village/district, to enable for early intervention of these
institutions to prevent reprisal attacks. Upon any report of conflict, the first thing that Abo Gerebs do
is ask the victim’s family not to resort to any act of revenge.1 There is considerable research on conflict
relapse and why so many peace processes ultimately fail.

Frequently, there is a “profound disconnect between elites and local communities…conflict resolution
and peacebuilding relies too heavily on political agreements between politico-military elites.”2 Cases
settled by the Gerebs are less likely to relapse into conflict than formal, state mechanisms used to
mitigate communal conflicts. According to the Abo Gerebs, homicide cases settled by them were less
likely to generate subsequent reprisal attacks than those settled by the district courts.3

Gereb traditional justice institutions in cooperation with relevant stakeholders have been able to sustain
peace for years between communities with different socio-cultural, religious, and economic realities.
Through the Gereb, these two communities have been able to navigate these differences and potential
points of tensions that have been the sources of conflict in many other parts of the continent and
elsewhere. Moreover, the composition of the members of the Gerebs is also important. The Abo Gerebs
are representatives of the two ethnic groups. They are immersed in the norms, values, and culture of
their communities; and they are well respected in local society.

However, there are obstacles to the wider utilization of traditional justice institutions. Within Ethiopia,
there are no legal, institutional, and policy frameworks to adequately engage traditional institutions
in peacebuilding. Traditional justice institutions are often not afforded the attention that they deserve
and not engaged in national, regional, and international peacebuilding policies, processes, and peace
agreements.

Policy Options and Recommendations

1. The African Union (AU) and Regional Economic Communities (RECs)

a. Cognizant of the number of traditional institutions in Africa and their established record of
mitigating conflict and building peace, the AU and RECs should move towards a more systematic
framework policy on traditional justice and conflict prevention. The AU should craft a separate
traditional justice policy, distinct from transitional justice policy.

b. RECs should nourish legal and policy frameworks for traditional justice institutions within the
context of each region, compatible with AU policies and frameworks.

c. Peace operations and peace agreements should incorporate traditional justice institutions in their
frameworks.

d. A comprehensive comparative study of inter-ethnic or inter-communal traditional institutions in

different parts of the continent needs to be conducted to gain more insights into practical strategies
for their utilization in conflict prevention and peacebuilding.

Wilson Center - Africa Program | 2

 e. Without affecting the autonomy and effectiveness of traditional justice institutions,
capacity-enhancing initiatives should be launched by regional organizations and international actors.
Seminars and workshops should be prepared on different ways that African communities perceive
and pursue peace and justice in the context of conflict-ridden societies.

2. The United Nations (UN) and Non-State Actors

a. Peace agreements proposed by the UN usually focus on elite pacts. However, peace can only be
sustained if it is built at the grassroots where traditional justice institutions reside.

b. Non-state actors active in post-conflict societies should engage traditional justice institutions and
work with them in terms of local justice, peace, and peacebuilding activities.

3. Government of Ethiopia and International Actors Working in Ethiopia

a. There is no clear constitutional, policy, or legal framework to incorporate traditional justice

institutions in Ethiopia, despite the prevalence of such institutions across all ethnic groups in the
country. Currently, traditional justice institutions are only permitted to work at the will of local
governments. Hence, strong policy and legal frameworks at national level are required to ensure that
they have the necessary support to function optimally.

b. Despite the establishment of a reconciliation commission in Ethiopia, tensions among various

communities remain acute. If the planned national dialogue will be elite-based amongst politicians, it
is unlikely to produce the desired result. Grassroots justice and reconciliation processes should come
before or in parallel to the national dialogue if there is to be any real hope of ameliorating the divisions
within Ethiopian society.

c. In cooperation with international actors, the government of Ethiopia should conduct a

comprehensive nationwide audit of traditional institutions for better utilization.

1. “Keeping the perpetrator in custody”, “bringing a guarantor for the behavior of perpetrator”, and “taking oath” are among
the way of preventing escalation of conflict in Ethiopia. Alula Pankhurst and Getachew Assefa (eds.), Grass-Roots
Justice in Ethiopia: The Contributions Of Customary Dispute Resolution, (French center of Ethiopian studies: 2008), 224,
https://books.openedition.org/cfee/471?lang=en.

2. Terence McNamee and Monde Muyangwa (eds.), The State of Peacebuilding in Africa: Lessons Learned for Policymakers and
Practitioners, (Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan, 2021) 13.

3. Interview with Abo Gerebs and disputant parties, April 2020.

Mr. Awet Halefom Kahsay is a Ph.D. Candidate in Peace and Security studies at Institute for Peace and
security Studies (IPSS), Addis Ababa University. He has been teaching law for more than seven years in
public universities in Ethiopia. Awet’s career interest is researching conflict, peace, and peacebuilding in
Africa with community-based knowledge so as to influence formulation of sound policies in the continent
and beyond. He was a Southern Voices Network for Peacebuilding (SVNP) Scholar during the spring 2022
(January to April) term at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C.

Wilson Center - Africa Program | 3

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SVNP Policy Brief and Research Paper Series

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please see our website at https://www.wilsoncenter.org/the-southern-voices-network-for-peacebuilding

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