Browsing by Author "Melat Assefa"

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    Negotiations on the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam: Security Implications for Ethiopia
    (Addis Ababa University,, 2022-07) Melat Assefa; Yonas Adaye (Associate Professor)
    The objective of this thesis is to assess the economic and political security implications of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) negotiations for Ethiopia. The nature of the study is primarily doctrinal research. The research design is qualitative research and explanatory and predictive approaches are employed to conduct the study. The sources of data are interviews with experts on the issue under study and a range of literature that are of primary and secondary sources. The GERD project is backed by a series of negotiations since its inception unlike projects conducted by Egypt and Sudan on the Nile River. Here, issues of negotiations kept broadening and third-party actors started engaging in trilateral negotiations which resulted in proposed and adopted agreements. The study unfolds the security implications of those negotiations for Ethiopia. In doing so, it answers questions on patterns of major treaties on the Nile River, security implications of major treaties and the GERD negotiations for Ethiopia, the ways major treaties on the Nile River inform negotiations in the GERD, and the outlooks of future negotiations as well as projects on the Nile River. Negotiations on GERD started at a trilateral level but attracted the intervention of regional and international negotiation platforms including the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) forum. The UNSC has redirected the dispute to the AU-led platform which is a good stance toward implementing the ‘African Solutions for African Problems’, maxim. Yet, negotiations failed to result in a binding cooperation agreement which, among other things, is attributable to the perceived risk of the parties constituting fear of being disadvantaged upon cooperation, and the sustained suspicious relationship of the parties manifested through unwillingness to make a meaningful compromise. The study concludes the contents of the proposed and adopted agreements of negotiations in the GERD compromise the security of Ethiopia by imposing onerous obligations that are not backed by reciprocal protection measures imposed on the lower riparian countries. Hence, it recommends a carefully designed negotiation approach to tackle the security threat posed by negotiations and adopt a legal framework to establish a usage right of Ethiopia on the Nile River.
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    The BanonIntercountry Adoption in Ethiopia: Implications on the Right to Alternative Care
    (Addis Ababa University, 2018-06) Melat Assefa; WondemagegnTadesse (PhD)
    The objective of the study is to assess the implications of the law banning intercountry adoption on the right to alternative care of orphans and vulnerable children. It examines those implications in relation to the best interest of the child. The nature of the study is both doctrinal and non-doctrinal legal research. The research design is qualitative legal research and exploratory and predictive research design approach is employed to conduct the study. The sources of data are literatures and a key informant interviews. Further, comparative study of the experiences of Russia, Romania, and Uganda was conducted to understand the practice of the world regarding the issue under study.On selection of the key informants,snowball sampling was adopted. The study reached at a conclusion that banning ICA in Ethiopian context goes against the best interest of the orphan and vulnerable children (OVC) which has to be determined on case-by-case basis. The country lacks a conducive environment to support its OVCs by exclusive focus on domestic alternative care options which highly rely on the capacities of nationals of the country, i.e. awareness, willingness and economic capacities of the nationals. It takes a considerable time to attain the three elements of capacitiesof the nationals of the state simultaneously. Further, the alleged problems on intercountry adoption are found to be abuses on the process which could have been rectified through administrative measures and by filling the gaps on the legal and institutional framework for intercountry adoption. In addition, the country lacks adequate domestic alternatives to support OVC in general and those with cross-sectional problems and with special needs in particular. The study finally recommends administrative measures for effective control and evaluation of adoption agencies and other institutions which facilitate the process be taken by the government. Further, it recommends the government to fill the gaps on the legal and institutional framework on intercountry adoption, to ratify the Convention on the Protection of Children and Co-operation in respect of Intercountry Adoption (Hague Convention) 1993,to improve compliance with quality-standard guideline for intercountry adoption by making it widely accessible, improving awareness and understanding through training and regular supervision and support of the adoption agencies and other institutions on the process and to adopt policies and procedures which favor information-sharing and networking between adoption agencies and all other institutions which are involved in the intercountry adoption process.