The Role of Civil Society Organizations in Human Rights Education in Ethiopia
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Date
2008-03
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
In today's world, the role of civil society is becoming prominent in influencing political,
economic and social policies to the advantage of the poor and marginalized sector of the
society. Emerging between the government and private sector as the third segment of
societal relations, civil society plays a decisive role by complementing what has not been
addressed by government and influencing the relationship between government and
private sector. Therefore, this fact has now become clear and certain that civil society
occupies an influential position on the global as well as national activities.
Civil society organizations are the result of society's recognition that government and
private sector alone cannot solve major societal Problems. This contributes to the need to
act together for a common causes or interests rather than waiting of the action of
government or pri vate sector.
The issue of human rights is one of the areas in which civil society organizations are
actively involved through out the world. From the multifaceted right-based issues,
creating public awareness is taken as a basic preventive mechanism for human rights
violations in which almost all right-based NGOs are engaged. Moreover, human rights
will be respected only if everyone knows what they are and such knowledge is neither
natural nor spontaneous. It has to be undertaken by all actors including civil society
organizations. Civil society and government entrusted with the task of raising public
awareness on human rights.
In the Ethiopian context, there are different human rights NGOs involved in human rights
education. However, it is witnessed that the general public is beyond the reach of those
institutions. This problem has its own background. Among these, less development of
right-based CSOs, the legal and policy impediment on the activities and internal factors
of CSOs themselves can be mentioned.
Even though the development and operation of CSOs in Ethiopia is limited due to
extemal and internal factors, it is believed that there are improvements in the CSOs activities. However, the internal problems of CSOs like: lack of qualified and committed
personals in their HRE activities, being urban centered, left out some group of the society
in their HRE programs and weak manual preparation can be mentioned as gaps of CSOs
particularly working on HRE .Moreover, poor networking culture among CSOs, poor
collaboration with government offices, problems of accountability and responsiveness to
their HRE activity are also their internal problem, which undermine their legitimacy.
There are also external factors which in one way or the other affect HRE activities of
CSOs. Lack of updated NGO legislation, problem of fund, biased perception of
government officials and long bureaucratic obstacles in their operations are some of the
external factors .
It is identified that the cumulative effects of these factors contribute to the development
of weak Co-operation between the government and the CSOs sector. It also makes the
CSOs human rights promotion activities ineffective. So, the public is not still beneficiary
from CSOs HRE activities as it is expected. These necessities to conduct depth research
to generate ideas about the solution to strengthen government - CSOs relationship.
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Keywords
Role of Civil Society