Minority Rights Group International R E P O R Ethiopia: A New Start? T • ETHIOPIA: A NEW START? AN MRG INTERNATIONAL REPORT AN MRG INTERNATIONAL BY KJETIL TRONVOLL ETHIOPIA: A NEW START? Acknowledgements Minority Rights Group International (MRG) gratefully © Minority Rights Group 2000 acknowledges the support of Bilance, Community Aid All rights reserved Abroad, Dan Church Aid, Government of Norway, ICCO Material from this publication may be reproduced for teaching or other non- and all other organizations and individuals who gave commercial purposes. No part of it may be reproduced in any form for com- financial and other assistance for this Report. mercial purposes without the prior express permission of the copyright holders. For further information please contact MRG. This Report has been commissioned and is published by A CIP catalogue record for this publication is available from the British Library. MRG as a contribution to public understanding of the ISBN 1 897 693 33 8 issue which forms its subject. The text and views of the ISSN 0305 6252 author do not necessarily represent, in every detail and in Published April 2000 all its aspects, the collective view of MRG. Typset by Texture Printed in the UK on bleach-free paper. MRG is grateful to all the staff and independent expert readers who contributed to this Report, in particular Tadesse Tafesse (Programme Coordinator) and Katrina Payne (Reports Editor). THE AUTHOR KJETIL TRONVOLL is a Research Fellow and Horn of Ethiopian elections for the Constituent Assembly in 1994, Africa Programme Director at the Norwegian Institute of and the Federal and Regional Assemblies in 1995. He has Human Rights, University of Oslo. He has conducted written and published widely on Ethiopia and Eritrea, anthropological fieldwork in Tigray and Eritrea, and served including (together with Tekeste Negash) Brothers at War: as a United Nations observer to the Eritrean referendum in Making Sense of the Eritrea/Ethiopia War, James Currey 1993 and an international observer to the regional elections Publishers, 2000. in 1997. He has also been an international observer to the MINORITY RIGHTS GROUP tion of conflict and encouraging positive action to build INTERNATIONAL trust between majority and minority communities. MRG has consultative status with the United Nations Eco- MRG works to secure rights and justice for ethnic, linguis- nomic and Social Council and has a worldwide network of tic and religious minorities. It is dedicated to the cause of partners. Its international headquarters are in London. Legal- cooperation and understanding between communities. ly it is registered both as a charity and as a limited company Founded in the 1960s, MRG is a small international non- under English law with an International Governing Council. governmental organization that informs and warns govern- ments, the international community, non-governmental THE PROCESS organizations and the wider public about the situation of minorities around the world. This work is based on the pub- lication of well-researched Reports, Books and Papers; As part of its methodology, MRG conducts regional direct advocacy on behalf of minority rights in international research, identifies issues and commissions Reports based fora; the development of a global network of like-minded on its findings. Each author is carefully chosen and all scripts organizations and minority communities to collaborate on are read by no less than eight independent experts who are these issues; and the challenging of prejudice and pro- knowledgeable about the subject matter. These experts are motion of public understanding through information drawn from the minorities about whom the Reports are writ- and education projects. ten, and from journalists, academics, researchers and other MRG believes that the best hope for a peaceful world lies in human rights agencies. Authors are asked to incorporate identifying and monitoring conflict between communi- comments made by these parties. In this way, MRG aims to ties, advocating preventive measures to avoid the escala- publish accurate, authoritative, well-balanced Reports. Oromo women loading their donkey with bags of flour. JAN HAMMOND Ethiopia: A New Start? CONTENTS 3 Preface 4 Abbreviations/Map 5 Introduction 6 The land and its peoples 12 Ethiopia: From unitary state to ethnic federation 18 Ethnic federalism: Power to the minorities? 24 Human rights under pressure 26 Key challenges 30 Conclusion: Promises unfulfilled? 31 Recommendations 32 Notes 36 Bibliography BY KJETIL TRONVOLL Declaration on the Rights of Persons Belonging to National or Eth- Article 9 nic, Religious or Linguistic Minorities The specialized agencies and other organizations of the United Nations sys- (Adopted by General Assembly Resolution 47/135 of 18 December 1992) tem shall contribute to the full realization of the rights and principles set Article 1 forth in the present Declaration, within their respective fields of compe- 1. States shall protect the existence and the national or ethnic, cultural, reli- tence. gious and linguistic identity of minorities within their respective territories Convention on the Rights of the Child and shall encourage conditions for the promotion of that identity. 2. States shall adopt appropriate legislative and other measures to achieve (Adopted by the UN General Assembly Resolution 44/25 of 20 November those ends. 1989) Article 2 Article 2 1. Persons belonging to national or ethnic, religious and linguistic minorities 1. States Parties shall respect and ensure the rights set forth in the present (hereinafter referred to as persons belonging to minorities) have the right Convention to each child within their jurisdiction without discrimination of to enjoy their own culture, to profess and practise their own religion, and any kind, irrespective of the child’s or his or her parent’s or legal guardian’s to use their own language, in private and in public, freely and without race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national, eth- interference or any form of discrimination. 2. Persons belonging to minorities have the right to participate effectively in nic or social origin, property, disability, birth or other status. cultural, religious, social, economic and public life. 2. States Parties shall take all appropriate measures to ensure that the child is 3. Persons belonging to minorities have the right to participate effectively in protected against all forms of discrimination or punishment on the basis of decisions on the national and, where appropriate, regional level concerning the status, activities, expressed opinions, or beliefs of the child’s parents, the minority to which they belong or the regions in which they live, in a legal guardians, or family members. manner not incompatible with national legislation. Article 29 4. Persons belonging to minorities have the right to establish and maintain 1. States Parties agree that the education of the child shall be directed to: their own associations. 5. Persons belonging to minorities have the right to establish and maintain, without any discrimination, free and peaceful contacts with other members (a) The development of the child’s personality, talents and mental and of their group and with persons belonging to other minorities, as well as physical abilities to their fullest potential; contacts across frontiers with citizens of other States to whom they are (b) The development of respect for human rights and fundamental free- related by national or ethnic, religious or linguistic ties. doms, and for the principles enshrined in the Charter of the United Article 3 Nations; 1. Persons belonging to minorities may exercise their rights, including those (c) The development of respect for the child’s parents, his or her own cul- set forth in the present Declaration, individually as well as in community tural identity, language and values, for the national values of the country with other members of their group, without any discrimination. in which the child is living, the country from which he or she may origi- 2. No disadvantage shall result for any person belonging to a minority as the nate and for civilizations different from his or her own; consequence of the exercise or non-exercise of the rights set forth in the (d) The preparation of the child for responsible life in a free society, in the present Declaration. spirit of understanding, peace, tolerance, equality of sexes, and friend- Article 4 ship among all peoples, ethnic, national and religious groups and per- 1. States shall take measures where required to ensure that persons belonging sons of indigenous origin; to minorities may exercise fully and effectively all their human rights and fundamental freedoms without any discrimination and in full equality (e) The development of respect for the natural environment. before the law. 2. States shall take measures to create favourable conditions to enable persons 2. No part of the present article or article 28 shall be construed so as to inter- belonging to minorities to express their characteristics and to develop their fere with the liberty of individuals and bodies to establish and direct edu- culture, language, religion, traditions and customs, except where specific cational institutions, subject always to the observance of the principles set practices are in violation of national law and contrary to international stan- forth in paragraph 1 of the present article and to the requirements that the dards. education given in such institutions shall conform to such minimum stan- 3. States should take appropriate measures so that, wherever possible, per- dards as may be laid down by the State. sons belonging to minorities may have adequate opportunities to learn their mother tongue or to have instruction in their mother tongue. Article 30 4. States should, where appropriate, take measures in the field of education, In those States in which ethnic, religious or linguistic minorities or persons of in order to encourage knowledge of the history, traditions, language and indigenous origin exist, a child belonging to such a minority or who is culture of the minorities existing within their territory.