5. National Youth Policy The national youth policy aims to fill the institutional policy gaps that existed in the past in attempts to enable citizens to acquire a democratic outlook, professional competence, skills and ethics to become active and efficient, and participate widely in and benefit from the country‟s ongoing activities as part of the aim to provide a democratic system and accelerated development. The Ministry of Women, Children and Youth Affairs at the Federal level and Regional Youth Affairs Bureaus at Regional level follow up the implementation of the policy. 6. Criminal Justice Policy The Government of Ethiopia issued an improved criminal justice policy in 2010 to ensure the peace and security of its citizens, and advance and strengthen one of the basic foundations of democracy and good governance.17 The policy maps out a national strategy of crime prevention, and provides for improvement of the crime investigation and prosecution services and for the efficiency and fairness of the criminal justice process. This, in turn, is expected to improve the administration of criminal punishment and its efficacy. The Policy aims to foster a criminal justice sector that not only addresses issues related to the prosecution of crimes, but also to ensure exemplary due process for those accused of crimes, especially vulnerable groups and juvenile offenders. One of the policy objectives is building a criminal justice system that strengthens respect for individual rights and freedoms. The policy also gives due attention to the issues of a speedy and fair judicial process and of access to an independent judiciary.18 7. Other Policy Measures In addition to the above, the government has also adopted the National Women‟s Affairs Policy, the Urban Development Policy, the National Population Policy, the HIV/AIDS Policy, the Cultural Policy, the Social Development and Welfare Policy, the Water Sector Policy and other similar policies. The central objective of all these, many of which are specifically pro-poor and green energy policies, is the continuous and sustainable development of the country and the building of a 17 18 Criminal Justice Policy document, page 1 Criminal Justice policy page 11 25