Constitutional and Institutional Protection of Minorities in Ethiopia

Abstract

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