The Right to Development in Ethiopia (original) (raw)
International recognition of the right to development is relatively recent. The United Nations General Assembly adopted the Declaration on the Right to Development in 1986. Few years later, the right was reaffirmed in the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action. However, its codification in a globally applicable human rights treaty is yet to take place. The degree of its recognition at the African regional level is more advanced. Africa has taken the lead in articulating and recognizing the right in a binding multilateral human rights treaty—the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights. Ethiopia is a party to the Charter and it is one of very few countries that recognizes the right to development in its domestic law. The 1995 Constitution of Ethiopia guarantees the right to development, which should be interpreted in accordance with the African Charter. Although the content and scope of the constitutional right to development has not been canvassed by judicial or quasi-judicial organs so far, the African Charter as interpreted by the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights is helpful in the identification of the right-holders and the scope of their rights, and the duty-bearer and the extent of its obligation under the Ethiopian Constitution. Such identification can be used to assess Ethiopia’s performance in the realization of the right to development.
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