It goes without saying that the legal system plays a significant, if not an indispensable, role in initiating and bringing about a sustainable development in any society. The complex nature of today's world, indeed, demands the active involvement of the legal profession in almost every aspect of human life. Paradoxically, however, there is always shortage of lawyers everywhere. as in every professional field which requires specialised and long term training this shortage of human power resources is even more severe in developing countries. When it comes to Ethiopia, with its until this year only law school producing about 50-60 lawyers in a year fro no more than 35 year, the situation can only be described as shocking.

It is also disheartening to learn that even those few lawyers are found, in almost every part of the globe, highly concentrated in urban areas. Even in the urban areas one needs to have a full purse in order to engage the service of a lawyer which automatically impedes the urban poor from meaningfully exercising or enforcing his/her legal rights by accessing the law and the legal system. This problem is more severe in developing countries like Ethiopia. The "modern" legal system conceived as a tool of bringing about modernisation is divorced from the life of the poor and marginalized which constitute the bulk of the citizens in these developing legal systems. A vicious cycle of negative reinforcements is thus created: the legal system cannot manage to develop and fully address the needs of the society because the majority of citizens do not participate in its functioning; and the majority of citizens cannot benefit from and participate in the functioning of the legal system because they are precluded from it.

For the poor and the marginalized this is nothing less than a denial of the basic right to having equal access to justice. The alternative remedy most, if not all, have agreed upon to address the problem of denial of equal access to justice has turned out to be a world-wide movement called PARALEGALISM. Paralegalism is a movement geared towards equal access to justice for all through strengthening the rights culture and empowering the marginalized. And the people who form the movement are called paralegals as we have paramedics for the medical profession. Paralegals are also alternately called "bare foot lawyers".

Why We Need Paralegalism?

The legal maxim "all are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to equal protection of the law" is given cognizance in different international human rights instruments and national legislation. In practice, however, this principle is more honoured in its breach than observance. There are several factors that beset positive initiatives and stand in the way of the realisation of this basic right of equal access to justice. The most visible factor is that of poverty. Many are precluded from benefiting from the legal system simply because they cannot afford to pay for the historically expensive cost of the service of a lawyer.

That expensiveness is a function of the way the legal system in many developing countries has been organised and the nature of the legal profession. Both of these are in themselves factors that preclude the poor and the marginalized from having equal access to justice. In many a developing nation, the legal system was cast as a means of systematically coe cing the ruled into submission. Deliberately or otherwise, it was also expensive for its main instrument, the judicial process, particularly when it is to be used as a means of redressing individual and group wrongs, is a costly one. The legal profession traditionally being part of the learned elite has had mainly the role of sustaining the status quo. Its services have been expensive due to the profession being limited to the select few who can afford to pay for the rigorous and extended process of initiation legal education.

Legal education itself indicates to another factor which precluded the poor and the marginalized from access to justice illiteracy, both literal and functional. The extensive lack of awareness about the general features of the legal system, its basic guarantees and fundamental procedures (let alone its intricate rules and technicalities) mean that for the majority of citizens in the developing countries the law and the legal system are an obscure luxury at best and a mysterious baton at worst.

A traditional and a Good Samaritan approach towards resolving the dilemma of the proclaimed equality before the law and the actual preclusion from accessing justice has been legal aid. In this, individual clients who do not have the means to pay for legal services have been provided these services have been provided these services through different mechanisms ranging from suits in forma pauperis procedures to pro bono advocacy. Offering legal assistance, in the traditional mode of client - lawyer relationship, essential as it is, does not address the root causes in a lasting way, simply because it is itself based on the separation of the legal profession and the legal system from the poor and the dependence of the poor as an individual on the professional. It is to break this vicious circle of dependence that creating self- sustaining legal resource base within communities is found to be essential. The seeds of community centred legal resource base can be shown by training members of communities selected from and based in their respective communities as parlaegals. The training of paralegals is thus an indispensable instrument from the perspective of taking the law to the people.

- an instrument of empowerment that provides communities with an additional resource to have a say in the other wise "alien" legal system.

This is the ultimate objective of paralegal training. However, the training itself as a process, can be a tool of empowerment. A training program seen as a tool of empowerment is not just a matter of transferring a predestined knowledge from the "all knowing" to the "ignorant". On the contrary, it is an enriching process of learning and exchanging in which one brings to fore real life happenings, societal values (good or bad), prejudices, good amenities, harmful practices, in short the wealth of experience of the people concerned for discussion without passing any judgment. In order to change or transform age old traditions or practices, however bad they might be, it is not enough, in fact it is not desirable, for anyone to say that they are bad or condemn them or show one's disapproval in any way.

What one needs to do is rather to stand above that and respect and accept people or their belief for what they are and help them see not only what is wrong in their beliefs and ideas but also how they can be improved without creating any bad feelings. such training is also a process through which ordinary people, the have nots, the marginalized, and poor communities are enable to actively participate and voice their informed concern on all matters - economic, developmental, political, social or legal - that affects their lives.

Paralegalism, besides being a basic tool for empowerment, is also viewed as one practical way of building a civil society. However one may define what civil society is, there are several ingredients that should go into its making. The sustenance and strength of civil society depends on a well functioning legal system that is readily available and based on the rule of law. Paralegals can be effective means of ensuring the availability of the law and respect for the rule of law through the basic legal services and information they provide at the grass-roots level. Civil society needs the informed voluntary and organised participation of citizens in all aspects of social life-political, economic, legal or otherwise. para-legals have not only been promoters of rights, but also voter educators, election monitors, human rights educators, and community organisers. Indeed when seen in this light the role of paralegals as development agents is quite significant. These are not merely wishful speculations, but lessons that one can draw from as far a field as the Philippines and South Africa.

An informed participation of citizens in all aspects of social life and in the development process in Ethiopia presupposes not only that they be made aware of their legal rights but also that they be empowered to effectively use the legal system in addressing their various socio-economic needs. As the poor in Ethiopia, like in any part of the world, have had limited or no access to the legal system, "justice for all" remains to be an empty call until such time that this large section of the society, have at their disposal the community based resource which enables them to use the law and the legal system to question the status quo from the perspective of the universally accepted values and principles of human rights. That resource is paralegalism which would obviously require a significant effort and will power on the part of both governmental and non-governmental bodies to take root and to bear fruits.