The Palatability of the Concept Indigenous People in Ethiopian Constitutional System

Abstract

Ethiopia is a multi-ethnic, multi-cultural, multi-lingual country. There are more than eighty nations, nationalities and people and more than 200 dialects in the country. Because of this the FRDE Constitution recognizes that every nations, nationalities and people of the country has the right to speak, to write and to develop its own language; to express, to develop and to promote its culture; and to preserve its history as well as the right to free land for grazing and cultivation as well as the right not to be displaced from their own lands but not the right of the indigenous people to own traditional lands, territories and resources their economic and social development and to their very survival as distinct cultural communities. The main objective of this paper is to examine the palatability of the concept indigenous people in Ethiopia Constitutional System. In doing so, legal and scholarly books were reviewed. So, as far as constitution is the supreme law of the country, the palatability of the concept indigenous people in the constitution is essentially important for the observance of the right of the indigenous people in Ethiopia. This paper analyzes that there is no constitutional provision in favor of the recognition of the rights of the indigenous people to own and use land for their survival in Ethiopia. Besides, the government argues that there is not any official statistics that identifies who are indigenous and who are not in the Ethiopia. This paper therefore insists that the concept and the rights of indigenous people in Ethiopian constitutional system are not palatable.

Keywords: Indigenous people, Human Rights, Nations, Nationalities and people, Constitution

DOI: 10.7176/JCSD/53-04

Publication date: November 30^th 2019