The Constitution of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia (), also known as the 1995 Constitution of Ethiopia, is the supreme law of

Ethiopia Ethiopia, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country located in the Horn of Africa region of East Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the north, Djibouti to the northeast, Somalia to the east, Ken ...

. The

constitution A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organization or other type of entity, and commonly determines how that entity is to be governed. When these pri ...

came into force on 21 August 1995 after it was drawn up by the

Constituent Assembly A constituent assembly (also known as a constitutional convention, constitutional congress, or constitutional assembly) is a body assembled for the purpose of drafting or revising a constitution. Members of a constituent assembly may be elected b ...

that was elected in June 1994. It was adopted by the

Transitional Government of Ethiopia The Transitional Government of Ethiopia (TGE) was an era established immediately after the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) seized power from the Marxist-Leninist People's Democratic Republic of Ethiopia (PDRE) in 1991. ...

on 8 December 1994 and came into force following the general election held in May–June 1995.Country profile: Ethiopia

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is a research library in Washington, D.C., serving as the library and research service for the United States Congress and the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It also administers Copyright law o ...

Federal Research Division The Federal Research Division (FRD) is the research and analysis unit of the United States Library of Congress. The Federal Research Division provides directed research and analysis on domestic and international subjects to agencies of the Unite ...

(April 2005).

Structure

The constitution consists of 106 articles in 11 chapters. Articles I-VII contains general provisions on matters of nomenclature of state, territorial jurisdiction, and the Ethiopian flag; Articles VIII-XII describe sovereignty, the supremacy of the constitution, democratic rights, separation of state and religion, and accountability of the government. It provides for a

federal government A federation (also called a federal state) is an entity characterized by a political union, union of partially federated state, self-governing provinces, states, or other regions under a #Federal governments, federal government (federalism) ...

of nine ethnically based regions governed by a

parliament In modern politics and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...

divided into the

House of Peoples' Representatives The House of Peoples' Representatives is the lower house of the Ethiopian Federal Parliamentary Assembly. Located in the capital Addis Ababa, the House has 547 members. All are elected in theory for five-year term in single-seat constituencies. ...

and the

House of Federation The House of Federation () is the upper house of the bicameral Federal Parliamentary Assembly, the parliament of Ethiopia. It has 112 members. Each Nation, Nationality and People shall be represented in the House of the Federation by at least ...

. It provides for a parliamentary system, with a mostly ceremonial

president President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Film and television *'' Præsident ...

as head of state, and executive power vested in a

Council of Ministers Council of Ministers is a traditional name given to the supreme Executive (government), executive organ in some governments. It is usually equivalent to the term Cabinet (government), cabinet. The term Council of State is a similar name that also m ...

headed by a

prime minister A prime minister or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...

. The constitution expressly provides for a set of basic

human rights Human rights are universally recognized Morality, moral principles or Social norm, norms that establish standards of human behavior and are often protected by both Municipal law, national and international laws. These rights are considered ...

; Article 13 specifies that these rights and freedoms will be interpreted according to the

Universal Declaration of Human Rights The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) is an international document adopted by the United Nations General Assembly that enshrines the Human rights, rights and freedoms of all human beings. Drafted by a UN Drafting of the Universal D ...

, the

International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) is a multilateral treaty that commits nations to respect the civil and political rights of individuals, including the right to life, freedom of religion, freedom of speech, freedom ...

, and other international instruments adopted by Ethiopia. The document further guarantees that all Ethiopian languages will enjoy equal state recognition, although

Amharic Amharic is an Ethio-Semitic language, which is a subgrouping within the Semitic branch of the Afroasiatic languages. It is spoken as a first language by the Amhara people, and also serves as a lingua franca for all other metropolitan populati ...

is specified as the working language of the federal government. Ethiopia has a tradition of highly personal and strongly centralized government, a pattern the

Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front The Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF; ) was an ethnic federalist political coalition in Ethiopia that existed from 1989 to 2019. It consisted of four political parties: Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF), Amhara ...

(the former ruling government coalition) had followed despite constitutional limits on federal power. The first general election held after the adoption of the constitution was the 2000 election. There were three earlier written

constitutions of Ethiopia Ethiopia has had four constitutions: * 1931 Constitution of Ethiopia * 1955 Constitution of Ethiopia *1987 Constitution of Ethiopia *1995 Constitution of Ethiopia A proposed revision of the 1955 constitution was released in 1974, but it had no le ...

, the preceding one being the

1987 Constitution The Constitution of the Philippines ( Filipino: ''Saligang Batas ng Pilipinas'' or ''Konstitusyon ng Pilipinas'') is the supreme law of the Philippines. Its final draft was completed by the Constitutional Commission on October 12, 1986, and rat ...

Controversy

The 1995 constitution has been subjected to constitutional crises with involvement of few cliques to run their own agenda. Some critics claim that the constitution was drafted by the

TPLF The Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF; ), also known as the Tigrayan People's Liberation Front, is a left-wing ethnic nationalist, paramilitary group, and the former ruling party of Ethiopia. It was classified as a terrorist organization ...

EPRDF The Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF; ) was an ethnic federalist political coalition in Ethiopia that existed from 1989 to 2019. It consisted of four political parties: Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF), Amhara ...

coalition in closed door and enacted overnight. The Constitutional Commission of the Transitional Government of Ethiopia (TGE) had worked with Regional Affairs Coordination Department for two years (1993 and 1994). The constitution organized public discussion from the grassroot kebele level to national level, involving many experts for advice while drafting. It also organized symposiums and forums of which the main draft provisions were discussed and debated Ethiopians. One of interesting feature of the discussion was the discussion conducted by article by article. After the discussion, participants voted for or against to each provision of the constitution, compiled the results at

kebele A ward (; ; ) is the smallest administrative unit of Ethiopia: a ward, a neighbourhood or a localized and delimited group of people. Somali word that has meaning of collected people where water is fairly sufficient and available to prolongue thei ...

district A district is a type of administrative division that in some countries is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or county, counties, several municipality, municip ...

zone Zone, Zones or The Zone may refer to: Places Military zones * Zone, any of the divisions of France during the World War II German occupation * Zone, any of the divisions of Germany during the post-World War II Allied occupation * Korean Demilit ...

region In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as areas, zones, lands or territories, are portions of the Earth's surface that are broadly divided by physical characteristics (physical geography), human impact characteristics (human geography), and ...

or national level.

Main provisions of the Constitution

Article 39

It deals with the rights of the nations, nationalities, and peoples of Ethiopia, including the provision that "Every Nation, Nationality and People in Ethiopia has an unconditional right to self-determination, including the right to secession".

The flag

Article 3(1) says "The Ethiopian flag shall consist of green at the top, yellow in the middle and red at the bottom, and shall have a national emblem at the center". Accordingly, the Flag and Emblem Proclamation No. 16/1996, Proclamation No. 48/1996 (Amendment) and Flag Proclamation No. 654/2009 enacted. Opponent of Article 3 defined different logo of the flag and subsequent laws by rejecting it. The Ethiopian government also failed to enforce its own constitutional laws in this regard. Article 3(3) authorized over the members of Federation to use their respective flags and emblems, which was opposed by pro-unitary groups. Few individuals opened debates through media about the flag and emblems of Ethiopia and gave guidance for the government.

Article 1

Article 47 of the constitution lists the members states of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia and enshrines the right of Nations, Nationalities and Peoples to establish their own States. Opponents objected about the Article come from Article 39, which stated that States should be divided into geographical lines (river, lakes etc) or economic class (pastoralists, farmers etc) rather than ethnolinguistic implications. Some Ethiopian government officials confused the argument; for example Prime Minister

Abiy Ahmed Abiy Ahmed Ali (; ; born 15 August 1976) is an Ethiopian politician who is the current Prime Minister of Ethiopia since 2018 and the leader of the Prosperity Party since 2019. He rose through the ranks of government via the Information Networ ...

conflated the term "boundary" and "border".

Public Opinion

On October 2022, the Policy Studies Institute released a report detailing public support for the FDRE constitution in Ethiopia. The results found that 91% of

, 66% of the

Somali Region The Somali Region (, , ), also known as Soomaali Galbeed () and officially the Somali Regional State, is a Regions of Ethiopia, regional state in eastern Ethiopia. It is the largest region of Ethiopia. The state borders the Ethiopian regions ...

and 64% of

Benishangul-Gumuz Benishangul-Gumuz () is a regional state in northwestern Ethiopia bordering Sudan. It was previously known as Region 6. The region's capital is Assosa. Following the adoption of the 1995 constitution, the region was created from the westernmos ...

supported the ethno-territorial system. While 78% of Amhara, 71% of

Sidama The Sidama () are an ethnic group traditionally inhabiting the Sidama Region, formerly part of the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples' Region of Ethiopia. On 23 November 2019, the Sidama Zone became the 10th regional state in Ethiopia ...

and 70% of the

Southwest The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A '' compass rose'' is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west— ...

were opposed to the ethno-territorial system. Those who were opposed to it saw the constitution as being the source of ethnic conflicts within the country, while those supporting it emphasized that it protected the sovereignty of the nations and nationalities in Ethiopia. However, there is overwhelming support for an amendment to Article 39 containing the right to secession. More than 75% of the respondents support an amendment to this provision. The tendency to support all of these provisions is highest among Somali (52%) and

(35%) participants while the tendency to oppose is higher among respondents from the

Amhara Region The Amhara Region (), officially the Amhara National Regional State (), is a Regions of Ethiopia, regional state in northern Ethiopia and the homeland of the Amhara people, Amhara, Awi people, Awi, Xamir people, Xamir, Argobba people, Argobba, a ...

(88%) and

SNNPR The Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples' Region (often abbreviated as SNNPR; ) was a regional state in southwestern Ethiopia. It was formed from the merger of five ''kililoch'', called Regions 7 to 11, following the regional council ele ...

(86%). But, it is only from the Somali region that the majority of participants supported the right to secession should be kept intact.

References

External links

Constitution text

*
Amharic and English (side-by-side)
PDF from Embassy of Ethiopia in Brussels, Belgium
English searchable PDF
by World Intellectual Property Organization

by University of Berlin {{Authority control Constitution Of Ethiopia, 1995 Constitutions of Ethiopia 1995 documents 1995 in law August 1995 in Ethiopia