Justiciability of Socio-economic Rights in the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia
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Date
2010-12
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
Civil and political rights have for years received, both at the international and national
levels, much more prominence than socio-economic rights. Ethiopia is no exception in
this regard. It is safe to state that, in the realm of civil and political rights, much has been
achieved in Ethiopia. Many people freely exercise and enjoy the fundamental rights and
freedoms recognized and protected in the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopian
(FDRE) Constitution and ratified agreements, most of which are civil and political rights.
However, the same cannot be said for socio-economic rights. This is because in the
existence of such situation in the country, there are not many cases of these rights
entertained by the judiciary. In other legal systems, problems related to nature of socio-
economic rights, and legitimacy and competency of the judiciary in adjudicating these
rights have impeded the judiciary’s efforts to enforce these crucial rights meaningfully. In
order to explore why the adjudication of socio-economic rights under the Ethiopian legal
system is under-developed, this research thus aims at examining and critically analyzing
the justiciability of socio-economic rights in Ethiopia. Hence, the justiciability of socio-
economic rights in the FDRE Constitution and ratified agreements is analyzed from the
perspective of the three normative pre-conditions of justiciability consisting of: claim,
setting and remedy elements of justiciability. Accordingly, this research argues that
socio-economic rights can be enforced both directly and indirectly in Ethiopia. While the
direct way would be grounded on the provisions of substantive part of the Constitution
and ratified treaties, the indirect way would be grounded on the provisions found in the
National Policy Principles and Objectives of the Constitution as well as cross-cutting
rights. Therefore, Ethiopian courts should adjudicate socio-economic rights.
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Keywords
Adjudication; Claim; Ethiopia; Justiciability; Remedy; Setting; Socio- economic rights