Meaza Ashanafi, a veteran legal professional, becomes the first female President of Supreme Court of Ethiopia. She has sworn in this morning at the parliament.
Meaza, is nominated by the Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed. Meaza served as judge at the federal high court. Her appointment came after both the previous Supreme Court President and his deputy have resigned as part of the country’s reform process launched by the reformist Prime Minister Abiy.
In her statement to the media following after taking the office, she indicated that in her first three months she plan to review and study the challenges in the justice system of the country by engaging other law practitioners in the country.
In recent years she has also worked as founder and board chairman of Enat Bank as well as founder of Ethiopian Women Lawyers Association. Based in Addis Ababa, recently she has been working at the UN Economic Commission for Africa.
Prime Minister of Ethiopia Abiy Ahmed, who came to power seven months ago, has recently appointed ten women to be members of his 20 members’ cabinet of ministers. That is followed by appointment of the first female president a week ago.
After getting her first Degree from the Addis Ababa University, she also went to the United States where she got her Masters in International Relations from Kent University, according to her biography.
The parliament today has also approved the newly appointed deputy president of the federal Supreme Court Mr. Solomon Areda, who also studied both in Ethiopia and the United States.
After his first degree in law from Addis Ababa University, Mr. Solomon has also got two degrees from Harvard University of the United States. Before his appointment Mr. Solomon was serving at The Hague International Criminal Court (ICC) and also been doing legal consulting in many African countries.