Constitutional and Institutional Protection of Minorities in Ethiopia (original) (raw)

2020, Addis Ababa University

This article investigates minority rights protection under the Ethiopian federal state structure envisaged in its legal instruments and institutional setups. Ethiopia is a land of diverse society in terms of religion, ethnicity, culture, language, and socio-economic activities. The Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia (FDRE) Constitution gives the right to each nation, nationality and people, among other, to preserve its identity, administer its own affairs, and get fair representation. However, the Ethiopian federal system, structured based on ethnolinguistic criteria, apportion the country into ten (including Sidama) regional states, subsuming the rest within them. The interests of minorities, who are lumped with relatively dominant ethnic groups, are not addressed and have not been given self-determination, nor are they recognized as a distinct ethnic group of the country. Recognition of minority groups is not only determined by the Constitution and other legal frameworks but also based on political expediency, which can be unconstitutional. The possible solutions include adopting proportional representation system, enforcement of basic human rights of citizens and consideration of mechanisms of non-territorial autonomy.