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The Protection of Minority Rights Under Regional Constitutions in the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia: the Case of Tigray

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The Protection of Minority Rights Under Regional Constitutions in the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia: the Case of Tigray Vol. 11(9), pp. 249-257, September 2017 DOI: 10.5897/AJPSIR2015.0834 Article Number: 7173B9D65607 African Journal of Political Science and ISSN 1996-0832 Copyright © 2017 International Relations Author(s) retain the copyright of this article http://www.academicjournals.org/AJPSIR Review The protection of minority rights under regional constitutions in the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia: The case of Tigray Yohannes Mamo Department of Political Science and Strategic Studies, College of Law and Governance, Mekelle University, Ethiopia. Received 20 September, 2015; Accepted 23 December, 2015 The issues of minority rights have received great attention in the political discourses of today. In traditional literatures and policy issues, special emphasis has been given to the protection of minority rights. After World War II, many international instruments were adopted, with declarations domesticated. Ethiopia is a case in point. After the downfall of the Dergue, Ethiopia ratified international human rights instruments like International Covenant on Civil and Political Right (hereafter ICCPR), International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (hereafter ICESCR) and African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Right (ACHPR), because it was determined to follow ethnic based federal system under the existing Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia (FDRE) Constitution that acknowledges unity within diversity. Some studies reveal that the existing legal and institutional mechanisms of accommodation have practical gaps to effectuate it up to the grass root level. Based on this, the study explores the status of minority rights in Tigray Regional State Constitution and its practical relationship with the Irob people in Eastern Tigray and Kunama people in Western Tigray. In doing this, it takes a sample of three Tabias from two Weredas/ District in Kunama and the whole Wereda from Irob using a purposive sampling technique. Consequently, the result of this study indicates that constitutionally, Tigray National Regional State (TNRS) recognizes the existence of Irob and Kunama people at least by the establishment of their local administration units. Nevertheless, this is not without limitations. Hence, the right to self-administration given to the Irob people is simply like that of the other Werdas of Tigray. They are not treated specially as Wereda in exercising their right. Given that the constitutional recognition of minorities is not an end by itself, it needs to be supported with appropriate legal documents for sustaining it, as it deems required. However, there is no special consideration for the representation of Irob and Kunama people in the regional council and other regional governmental institutions. Finally, the study suggests that Tigray National Regional State should open legal and institutional rooms for the protection of minority rights that enables them to enjoy their rights and play roles in the existing federal system. Key words: Ethiopia, Tigray, Federal Constitution, Regional Constitution, minority rights. E-mail: [email protected]. Authors agree that this article remain permanently open access under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 International License 250 Afr. J. Pol. Sci. Int. Relat. INTRODUCTION Article one of the Constitution of the Federal Democratic Aberra Dagafa, having a universally accepted, Republic of Ethiopia (FDRE) depicts the establishment of recognized and binding definition of the term can reduce the Federal Democratic Republic 1 (FDRE Constitution, the controversy surrounding its definition and makes one 1995). The Constitution creates a federal state structure to focus on the rights of the minorities (Aberra, 2008). with nine regional states 2 and recognizes nations, Welhengama Gnanapala also states that there is lack nationalities and peoples of Ethiopia3. Accordingly, all the of conventional definition of the term minority across the nations, nationalities and peoples of Ethiopia are given world, and there are no international instruments that can the right of self-determination to establish their own state help us to think about their rights and to adopt meaningful 6 including the right of unconditional secession, right to measures for ensuring their right . Nevertheless, the develop their own language, promote their culture and issue of minorities was sensitive as one of the main 7 preserve their history4. The existence of minorities has causes of the World War II . According to G. 8 shown the importance of federalism in contributing to Pentassuglia as cited in Christophe Van der Beken , the shared governance in a large political unit for certain predominant focus in international law on the protection common purpose and self-governance for the various of universal human rights was changed after the end of smaller constituent units of government to be directly Cold War politics. responsible for their own electorates (Watt, 2008). Based on this fact, the United Nations (UN) Hence, it could be said that all attempts made for the best organization has come up with a declaration that explicitly protection of minorities, particularly in federations, are recognizes the right of minority. Accordingly, the 1992 UN among the foundations of the federation‟s effort to declaration in article one states “States, shall protect the accommodate diversity. In short, protection of minority existence and the national or ethnic, cultural, religious rights is at the hub of accommodation of diversity in a and linguistic identity of minorities within their respective multi-ethnic society. territories and shall encourage conditions for the As a multi-ethnic nation, Ethiopia designed a federal promotion of that identity.” And article two stipulates, political system to accommodate the diverse groups “states shall adopt appropriate legislative and other 9 thereby maintaining the unity of the country. In the measures to achieve those ends” . It is plausible to context of Ethiopian federation, all nations, nationalities deduce that the declaration is imperative in terms of and peoples are minorities5. In pursuant of the Federal enumerating certain rights of minorities. However, there Constitution, every regional state within the federation is lack of clarity as to what the term minority means. has its own respective constitution in which the right of Article 27 of the International Covenant on Civil and minority groups is considered and given constitutional Political Right (ICCPR) guarantees those states which guarantee. This is meant to safe- guard the endogenous have ethnic or linguistic minorities to enjoy their culture 10 and exogenous minorities scattered at regional states. It and practice and use their own language . This covenant is within this framework of analyses that the study is also does not define the term minority. It stipulates that based on. The study deals with the protection of minority persons belonging to religious, ethnic, or linguistic rights under the Constitution of Tigray National Regional minorities shall not be denied the right to enjoy their own State. Tthe study is organized in three sections: The first culture, to profess their own religion, or to use their own 11 part deals with the elaboration of terms and theoretical language with other members of their community . Other frameworks. The second part focuses on the essence of scholars have also defined it in different ways; among local governments in Tigray. The third is about protection others, the first worth accepting definition was given by of minority rights at the Federal and Tigray Regional Capotorti as cited in Aberra Dagafa: Constitution in relation to actual practice. This is followed by conclusion. A minority is a numerically group of people inferior to the rest of the population of a state; they occuppy a non- dominant position; their members-being nationals of the THEORETICAL FRAMEWORKS OF MINORITIES state-possess ethnic, religious or linguistic characteristics differing from the rest of the population and show, if only The term minority is defined by different scholars in implicitly, a sense of solidarity directed towards preserving different ways, meaning no universally accepted definition. According to Grammatikas Vassilios as cited in 6 Ibid, 33 7 Ibid, 21 1 Proclamation No.1/1995, A Proclamation to pronounce the coming in to 8 C. Van der Beken, Constitutional Mechanisms for the Accommodation of effect of the constitution of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, Ethnic Diversity, in Unity in Diversity- Federalism as Mechanism to Addis Ababa, Negarit Gazeta, 21st August, 1995. Accommodate Ethnic Diversity: the case of Ethiopia (unpublished), 32 2 Ibid, Article, 47 (1) 9 Declaration on the Rights of persons belonging to national or ethnic, religious 3 Ibid, Preamble of the Constitution. and linguistic minorities, 1992 4 Ibid, Article 39 10 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, 1996. 5 Supra note at 1, article 39. 11 Ibid Mamo 251 18 their culture, traditions, religion or language (Aberra, Charter on Human and Peoples‟ Right (ACHPR) has 2008). laid down the foundations for the protection of minority rights. The aims of these instruments are to promote, The supra definitions have given a broader scope for the encourage and respect human rights without distinction term minority since it does not specifically limit itself to of any kind, such as race and language. Besides, these the requirement of nationality or citizenship. According to are all intended to promote
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