The State of Emergency in Ethiopia. Compatibility to International Human Rights Obligations

Scientific Study from the year 2020 in the subject Politics - Topic: Public International Law and Human Rights, Wolkite University, course: Political Science and Internationhal Relations, language: English, abstract: This paper examines the constitutional and legal derogations or limitations to which the enjoyment of Human Rights could be subjected, during a period of a State of Emergency in Ethiopia and explores Ethiopia's compatibility to International Human rights standards.

The scope of the Research is general and broad because of which it was not possible to identify and elaborate on each and every legislation and provisions that are inconsistent with constitutional and international human rights principles and propose recommendations. For example, regarding how courts, national human right institutions and etcetera are handling domestic application of international human rights instruments is not the scope here.

The research approach for this study was qualitative one. As a matter of the fact that the issue of human rights is subtle and the lack of adequate data system of the legal system, a multi-methodology approach was deployed. Data collection tools employed is a Document analysis, qualitative interview and Literature review.

The study concludes that the declaration of emergency and the resultant derogation of human rights has been the normal form of exercise of state of sovereignty in Ethiopia. In addition to the governing norms and principles the country use as a precondition to justify the need to take emergency measures and giving power to the concerned organ, a proper institutional and procedural mechanism of checking and necessary control against a possible abuse of emergency powers is vital.