Ethiopian Journal of Human Rights

EJHR V8N1

Editor EJHR — Fri, 22 Aug 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Abstract

Rape Myths and the Legal Process in Ethiopia: Impact of Victim Behavior Prior to Rape

Kidus Meskele — Wed, 27 Aug 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Ethiopia has implemented numerous policy improvements including reforming a legislation against rape. However, it is still unclear how much these changes have shifted the focus of rape case processing from the victim’s reputation and behavior to the offender’s criminal behavior. The purpose of this article is to study how the myth of “victim behavior” affects rape prosecutions in South Ethiopia Region. The study used a socio-legal method of empirical data collection, which combined survey, interview, and court document analyses. All in all, 230 key actors, including judges, prosecutors, defense lawyers, and investigating police officers answered a self-administered survey questionnaire. Besides, 40 interviews were conducted and 316 prosecution and court files were analyzed. The survey data shows that the majority of respondents (64.82%) rated their attitudes on the six-item scale above average indicating that many of the key actors in the legal process are inclined to believe in rape myths and, when addressing rape cases, have been influenced by victims” purported actions before rape. Besides, data from interviews, as well as case review analysis, revealed that the victim’s reputation and risk-taking behavior prior to rape have a significant influence on the legal process. As a result, the findings of this study indicate that rape victims in the study area are more likely to be unfairly treated in the legal process due to the influence of rape myths on the key legal actors.
Keywords: rape myths, legal process, victim, South Ethiopia Region

1 PhD in Law candidate, School of Law, Addis Ababa University 2 Assistant Professor, School of Law, Addis Ababa University.

Realization of Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights in Ethiopia: Lifting the Veil of Tax Evasion and Avoidance

Henok Ashagrey — Mon, 28 Aug 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Ethiopia is a party to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), which obliges the government to ensure the realization of economic, social and cultural (ESC) rights to the maximum of its available resources. Taxation, which is the most predictable source of government revenue, is a critical part of the state’s compliance with the Covenant’s obligation. Therefore, Member States are required to levy effective types of taxation, while discouraging diversion of resources. Putting in place effective legal frameworks aimed at combating tax avoidance and evasion, is not only an ICESCR compliance step, but also a sine qua non of generating sufficient resources that can be used to improve the socio-economic conditions of citizens, particularly the vulnerable groups. This paper examines Ethiopia’s tax policies and practices, focusing on their effectiveness in tackling tax avoidance and tax evasion practices, through the prism of human rights principles and standards. The findings reveal that despite having robust legislations to address tax abuse practices, and a consistent nominal increase in tax revenue over the past two decades, Ethiopia is experiencing notable losses in potential tax revenue, and the tax-to-GDPratio has been gradually declining, particularly for the last seven consecutive fiscal years. The prevalence of both domestic and international tax abuse practices contributes significantly to this situation. Although comprehensive data on the exact extent of these practices is limited, the paper draws on available information, including the State of Tax Justice reports in 2020 and 2021, to highlight how these abusive practices drain funds that could be invested in education, health, poverty reduction, and other critical areas.
Keywords: taxation, maximum available resources, avoidance, evasion, and socio-economic rights
11 Henok Ashagrey, LLB (Dilla University), LLM in Human Rights Law (, Centre for Human Rights, Pretoria University), LLD candidate (Centre for Human Rights, Pretoria University). The author can be reached at: hendulsa@gmail.com.

The Human Rights Implications of Climate Policy Action in Ethiopia: The Case of Humbo Afforestation/Reforestation (A/R) Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) Project

Dagim Melese — Mon, 28 Aug 2023 00:00:00 +0000

The climate crisis is adversely affecting the full and effective enjoyment of a range of human rights such as the rights to life, health, water and adequate standard of living. Moreover, the crisis is characterized by uneven causes, vulnerabilities and impacts. This brings forth the climate justice concerns in which poor countries are subjected to disproportionate impacts of the problem which they hardly caused but are also obliged to shoulder inequitably distributed burden in mitigating the problem through policy instruments that are rife with human rights violations. The purpose of this article is to show the climate justice and rights implications of market-based climate policy drawing on empirical evidence from the implementation of Humbo Afforestation / Reforestation (A/R) Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) project in the Humbo Wereda of Wolayita Sodo Zone in the South Ethiopia Regional State. The article draws on in-depth interviews, Key Informant Interviews (KII) ,Focus Group Discussions (FGDs), survey questionnaire, observation checklist field notes and document analysis in the discussion and analysis of the human rights implications of the implementation of the CDM project. It is found out that the implementation of the project failed to respect such procedural rights as the rights to Free, Prior, and Informed Consent (FPIC), access to information, participation in decision making and getting remedies on the one hand and also both directly and indirectly violated such substantive right as the rights to adequate standard of living. The article concludes underlining that climate policy needs to recognize that the respect and protection of the right to a clean,healthy and sustainable environment and the right to development entails fundamental politico-economic transformation involving a shift away from reliance on fossil fuels as energy sources upholding the Human Rights-Based Approach to Climate Policy.
Keywords:- Climate Injustice, Human Rights –Based Approach, A/R CDM Project, Kyoto Protocol, Flexibility Mechanisms, the Paris Agreement

Representation of Slavery and Class in Kafa Proverbs

Mesfin Wodajo — Mon, 28 Aug 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Slavery and class-based subjugation are key elements of human rights violations. They deprive the dignity of human beings and disrupt the fundamental human rights. This paper argues that violation of human rights is reflected in everyday use of language, such as proverbs in Kafa. Although proverbs maintain accepted socio-cultural values of a given society, they can be deliberately misused to spread prejudices and stereotypes that result in rights violations. Through informal interviews with selected informants from Kafa Zone, this study examined how proverbs in Kafa language serve as a means of communication in the community to show social hierarchy. Proverbs focusing on slavery were collected and translated into English, and then they were classified and analyzed. As the analysis shows, in the Kafa proverbs, people whose roots are traced to “slave” families and to a lower tribal class called Sheraaro are considered as those on the lower social strata hence imposing differential treatment. In the traditional Kafa society, there were class differences. These differences were based on economic and political power, and such differences were observed in Kafa proverbs. Other than clan/tribal differences, the Kafa people were categorized into three classes: the royal class (Iraasho), the ordinary clans (Sharaaro) and the slaves (Guuno). Based on these class differences, the Iraasho undermines both the Sharaaro and Guuno while the Sharaaro in turn disrespects the Guuno. Some of the Kafa proverbs maintain such a stereotypical category and stand against international and national human rights declarations.
Keywords: class, slavery, proverbs, Kafa, culture, oral literature

The Constitutional Adjudication of Rural Women’s Land Rights in Ethiopia

Anchinesh Shiferaw — Mon, 28 Aug 2023 00:00:00 +0000

The legal regime on rural land rights in Ethiopia is decentralized, having the federal and regional land administrative legislations. Though many aspects of these laws are similar, there are few aspects of these legislations that vary in terms of substance and level of implementation. When analyzed from a gender perspective, the legislations differ in the scope and extent of promotion of gender justice in administration, control, transfer, and use of land rights of women. Questions arise as to the extent to which the diversity/ difference envisaged under these legislations affects women’s constitutional rights to use, transfer and administer land. This article analyzes landmark decisions rendered by the Council of Constitutional Inquiry (CCI) and the House of Federation (HoF) regarding disputes affecting women’s rural land rights. The article discusses the implications of a lack of uniform gender sensitive/ responsive approaches in the adjudication of rural women’s rights to land in Ethiopia. The methods of data collection and analyses include a dogmatic analyses of laws, case, and the literature, as well as key informant interviews. The article provides insights for policy makers and stakeholders working on gender equality.
Keywords: rural women’s land rights, gender-sensitive constitutional interpretation, legislative power on land laws, Council of Constitutional Council
131 Anchinesh Shiferaw is a lecturer and a PHD candidate at Addis Ababa University, Center for Human Rights

A Glimpse of Normative Framework of Physical Accessibility for Persons with Disabilities in Ethiopia and the Key Advocacy Areas by CSOs: The Case of Addis Ababa

Wubishet Girma and Yilikal Hassabie — Mon, 28 Aug 2023 00:00:00 +0000

The main objective of this article is to make an overview of the existing normative standards and norms on the right to physical accessibility of Persons with disability (PWD) and the practical challenges faced by them in the built environment in Addis Ababa. Besides, the article identifies key advocacy areas by civil society organizations (CSOs) to address both the legal and practical challenges which PWDs encounter in their day to day lives. Desk review, key informant interviews, and observations were employed for data collection. The findings show that the majority of public buildings, hospitals, schools, workplaces, and the transport system including pavements and sidewalks of Addis Ababa are inaccessible for PWDs, which is mainly attributed to the absence of exclusively enacted accessibility legislation. The existing building laws neither are insufficient to comprehensively address accessibility issues nor are they properly implemented. To mitigate the challenges, the article suggested revision of laws, commitment to their implementation, and the advocacy role of CSOs in general and organizations of peoples with disabilities (OPDs) in particular. The changes are also required in the areas of budget allocation, access to justice and new institutional setup for disability affairs.
Keywords: disability, physical accessibility, CSOs/OPDs, advocacy interventions
237 Wubshet Girma , Ethiopian Human Rights Commission
238 Yilkal Hassabie Wudneh is a Ph.D. student at Center for Human Rights, Addis Ababa University