Ethnic federalism and internal minorities: the legal protection of internal minorities in Ethiopia
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Date
2013
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Edinburgh University Press
Abstract
Not a single federal arrangement has been successful in demarcating the territorial
matrix of the federation into separate ethnically defined territorial units. The
decade-old federal experiment in Ethiopia is no exception to the impractical reality
of creating ethnically pure sub-national units. Although the internal structure
of the federation, by and large, follows an ethnic line, ethnic minorities are
found in the midst of most, if not all, regionally empowered ethnic groups.
This has brought to the fore issues about the majority–minority tension at
the level of the sub-national units or, as they are called in Ethiopia, regions.
The status and treatment of those who do not belong to the empowered
regional majority has emerged as a thorny issue that has bedevilled the federal
experiment.
The aim of this contribution is to examine whether the federal system adopted
in Ethiopia responds adequately to the challenges of internal minorities. It, in
particular, examines whether the federal arrangement provides for appropriate
institutional solutions to the tensions that exist between regionally empowered
groups and their internal minorities. Before discussing the Ethiopian case,
however, the article, in the following section, casts the issue in the context of
multi-ethnic federations. By doing so, it seeks to show that the problem of internal
minorities is not unique to the federal arrangement in Ethiopia.
Description
Keywords
Ethnic federalism, Internal minority, Ethiopia, Ethnicity, Ethnic groups, Ethnic identity, Minority's Rights
Citation
Fessha, Y. T. and Van der Beken, C. (2013). Ethnic federalism and internal minorities: the legal protection of internal minorities in Ethiopia. African Journal of International and Comparative Law, 21 (1): 32-49