Moral and Civics Chapter 5

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Chapter Five: Constitution, Democracy and Human Rights

5.1 Chapter Introduction
5.2 Chapter Objectives
5.3 Constitution and Constitutionalism
5.3.1 Conceptualizing Constitution
▪ The word ‘constitution’ is used mainly in many senses
✓ In a political sense, it signifies the constitution of the state
✓ the term has attained a normative connotation and has
become another term for a ‘democratic political order
▪ Constitution is figuratively defined as
o the fundamental or basic law of a state which sets out the
structure of the state
o lists the rights of citizens alongside the limits on the power
exercise of a government
▪ It is a blue print placed on top the hierarchy of laws on
constitutional governments
▪ It is collection of principles according to which the powers of
the government, the rights of the governed, and the relation
between the two are adjusted

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 ▪ Constitution is the mothers of all laws; all other ordinary laws
are derived from and subjected to this blue print
▪ constitution is supreme law of a land, any other law
contradicted with the provisions of the constitution becomes
void or invalid
5.3.2. Peculiar Features of Constitution
- constitutional documents and traditions take the general form
of a contract or an agreement between the ruled and the rulers
✓ Limitations on the rulers are exacted by the ruled in
exchange for allowing the rulers to preserve some
elements of their right to govern and for preserving the
stability of the governing system itself
distinctive features of a constitution
➢ Generality
• provides the general principle of a state and carry on
foundation and sets out general framework of the law and
the government
• constitutional law announces principles while other laws
apply or implement what the constitution announce their
respective spheres of fields
• other laws provide the details BUT constitution is always
the most general in the sense, short and brief
• The generality is very important because it give the
constitution a feature of elasticity through interpretation
thereby to accommodate various questions

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 ➢ Permanency
• It is made for undefined period of time; serve for a long lap of
ages
• purposely made to be stable and permanent
✓ other laws are tentative, occasional and in the nature
of temporary existence
➢ Supremacy
• taking precedence over all others, and defining how all
the others should be made
• It is original because it is directly made by the people as
the direct expression of the will of the people
✓ other laws are secondary or derivate being
commands of representatives of the sovereign
➢ Codified document
• written down; often in a single document that presents the
constitution in a systematic manner
• constitutions are not intended to be perfect is evidenced
by expressly stated processes for revising or amending
them
➢ Allocation of powers
• It outline the proper relations between institutions and
offices of the state, and between government and citizens
• most crucial part because it allocates powers and
functions to government

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5.3.3 Major Purposes and Functions of Constitution
Serves as a framework for Government
✓ It is a plan for organizing the operation of government
which in turn effectively guides the functions and powers
of bodies of government
Limits the Powers of Government
✓ In a constitutionally limited government, officials are
always abided by the constitution
✓ there is no decision or action that will be undertaken
arbitrarily and spontaneously rather
• every decision, act, or behavior is entertained
according to rules and laws that originate from the
constitution
✓ A constitutional Government is neither too powerful nor
too weak
• constitutions shall grant Governments enough
powers to effectively and consistently undertake
their functions and responsibilities
• But at the same time must put limits on their powers
to make sure that they are not in a position to
endanger the rights and freedoms of citizens
Protects individual and collective rights of citizens
Serves as the Supreme (Highest) Law of a Country
✓ Constitution is the source of and supreme over all laws
in a country
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 ✓ No specific law will be valid if it contradicts the
constitution
✓ constitution of state is referred to as “the law behind
other laws or “the Mother of all laws” of a country
Provides Government legitimacy/stability
✓ provide mechanisms through which any potential
conflicts can be adjudicated and resolved
✓ It provide the vital function of introducing a measure of
stability, order, and predictability of government
o It gives governments a legitimate/legal right to rule
or govern and by doing so it serves as the weapon
for legitimizing regimes
It is Blue Prints for establishing Values and Goals
✓ fundamental aims (objectives) and principles are
described or accomplished explicitly in preambles to
constitutional documents, which often function as
statements of national ideals and values
• Example: preamble of the FDRE Constitution
5.3.4. Classification of Constitutions
▪ Constitutions are classified into different categories using
different criteria
A.Constitution based on form
✓ in view of the breadth of written provisions; based on
form/appearance constitutions
➢ Written Constitution
• is one whose provisions are written in detail
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 • embodied in a single formal written instrument or
instruments
• written constitution is a formal document in a
codified form
- Example, India, Kenya, Ethiopia, USA,
Germany, Brazil
Merits of Written Constitution
✓ easily accessible to citizens that - enable them to
monitor the behavior of their government
✓ Citizens can easily learn about their rights and
duties
✓ full of clarity and definiteness because the
provisions are written in detail
✓ has the quality of stability
Demerits of written constitution
✓ It creates a situation of rigidity - leads to the
development of a conservative attitude
✓ It becomes difficult to change it easily quickly as per
the requirements of time - possibilities of mass
upheaval are increased
✓ becomes a play thing in the hands of the lawyers
and the courts - Different interpretations come up
from time to time that unsettle the judicial thought of
the country
✓ not easily adapted to a new situation or changing
circumstances. It needs be continuously amended
to be adapted to a new situation
➢ Unwritten Constitution
• fundamental principles and powers of the
government are not written down in any single
document
• written provisions are very brief and most of the
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 rules of the constitution exist in the form of usages
and customs
- Example: British constitution
Merits of Unwritten Constitution
✓ has the quality of elasticity and adaptability
✓ so dynamic that it prevents the chances of popular
uprisings
✓ can absorb and also recover from shocks that may
destroy a written constitution
Demerits of Unwritten Constitution
✓ not easily accessible to the public to determine
which aspects of the constitution are violated and
when it is violated
✓ difficult to create awareness through education
✓ It leads to situations of instability - always in a state
of flux as per the emotions, passions and fancies of
the people.
✓ It leads to the state of confusion
✓ It certainly does not suit a democracy where people
are always conscious and suspicious of
constitutional provisions - may be suitable to a
monarchical or aristocratic system
B.Constitution based on complexity of amending process
➢ Rigid Constitution
• the process of amendment is difficult
• special procedure is followed to make a change in
any rule of the constitution
- A constitutional amendment bill must be
passed by the parliament by special majority
• A more difficult procedure of constitutional
amendment is the one which requires a national
referendum
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 - Referendum - the process of direct voting by
citizens to support or rejects at constitutional
amendment or other major national issues
• does not adapt itself to changing circumstances
immediately and quickly
- Example: USA, Australia, Denmark and
Switzerland
➢ Flexible Constitution
• simple amendment procedure and there is as such
no special required procedure for amending a
constitution
- absolute majority (two thirds support) in the
parliament
• adapts easily and immediately to changing
circumstances
- Example: Constitutions of United Kingdom and
New Zealand
C. Constitution based on degree of practice
✓ On the basis of the degree to which constitution of state
observed in practice
➢ Effective Constitution
• government/citizens practices correspond to the
provisions of the constitution
• requires not merely the existence of constitutional
rules and laws but also the capacity of those rules
and laws to constrain or limit government behavior
and activities, and establish Constitutionalism
➢ Nominal constitution
• constitution accurately describes
government’/citizens’ limits yet in practice either or
both fail to behave accordingly
• constitution only remains to have paper value or
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 when there is absence of constitutionalism
• a nominal Constitution is not observed in practice
but in form
D. Based on the kind of state structure
✓ based on the kind of state structure made by the
constitution
➢ Federal Constitution
• distributes power among the different units of a
state administration
• Some constitutions purely classify and decentralize
power between the central government and
regional/local units
• The powers divided between the federal
government and states or provinces will be clearly
set down in the constituent document
➢ Unitary Constitution
• state power is concentrated in the hands of the
central government
• central government can establish or abolish the
lower levels of government; determine their
composition, and their power and functions
- local government has no guarantee for their
existence
5.4. Constitutionalism
▪ refers to a doctrine that governments should be faithful to their
constitutions
▪ It is being subject to limitations and that citizens and
governments operate in accordance with the general rules and
laws rather than arbitrary
✓ This is because the rules and laws so provided are all that
can protect citizens’ rights from arbitrary actions and
decisions of the government
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 ▪ constitutionalism is the belief that constitution is the best
arrangement of affairs in a society
▪ essential elements for constitutionalism are constitution and its
effective implementation
▪ It is another name for the concept of a limited and civilised
government
▪ constitutionalism does not merely require the existence of
constitution
✓ constitutionalism checks whether the act of government is
legitimate and whether officials conduct their public duties
in accordance with laws pre-determined in advance
5.5. The Constitutional Experience of Ethiopia: Pre and Post
1931
5.5.1. Traditional Constitution (Pre- 1931)
▪ Ethiopia has a very little experience with a written constitution
in spite of its long history of state formation.
✓ first written form of constitution promulgated in Ethiopia in
1931
▪ Such lack of written constitution does not necessarily implicate
the total absence of constitutional rules and principles
▪ Beginning in the 13th Century until the early 20th Century the
Ethiopian Orthodox Church was the chief legitimator of
monarchical rule
▪ documents like the Kebra Nagast, the Fatha Nagast and serate
mengest from the 13th Century until the early 20th Century
were the precursors to the formal written Ethiopian national
constitutions of the modern era
Fetha Negest – (The Law of Kings)
✓ a religious and secular legal provision than being a definite
constitution
✓ It was originally written in Arabic by the Coptic Egyptian
writer Abu-l Fada’il Ibn al-Assal
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 ✓ designed by monks in the Church the same time Kebre
Negest penned
✓ It set out the laws and regulations that were used to
govern all activities of the Ethiopia society in the late
middle age
• used as the sources of constitutional, civil, and
criminal laws
✓ It was compiled from the Old Testament, the New
Testament, and the Roman law
✓ It was fundamental laws upon which the government and
the administration were based and the king vested with
absolute power
• It contains the idea of divine rights of kings with the
assumption that rules have a God given power
Kibre Negest – (The Glory of Kings)
✓ written to document for the first time the mythical origins of
the royal house
✓ written by six Tigrean clerics and completed in the early
14th Century
✓ important traditional document that even defined who
should become king in Ethiopia
• It was the principal sources of legitimacy for the kings
✓ Based on this the document determined that any king in
Ethiopia must descend from the Solomonic dynasty or
must have such blood relationship with the dynasty
Ser’ate Mengist
✓ provided certain administrative protocol and directives in
the 19th century
✓ hardly be considered to be a document of Constitutional
Law in its widest sense
✓ it is the first document known to have been used for
allocating power among the Crown, its dignitaries and the
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 Church
✓ tried to lay out a pattern of succession to power, though
the problem of primogeniture was more theoretical than
practical
5.5.2. The 1931 First Written Constitution
▪ With promulgation of first written form of constitution on July16,
1931 by Emperor Haile Selassie, the era of unwritten form of
constitution came to an end
▪ The constitution reinforced the traditional position of the
emperor as ‘Siyume Egziabiher, Niguse Negast Za Ethiopia’
which literally means: Elect of God, King of Kings of Ethiopia
✓ However, on the other marked the end of the role of the
nobility or at least the gradual reduction of their role in
local leadership, the traditional check against the power of
the king of kings, to insignificance
▪ The constitution unequivocally declared that the sole basis of
legitimate authority was the emperor, and that all titles and
appointments descended from him - Article 6
▪ both internal and external factors forced the development of
the 1931 constitution
External Factors
✓ It was was the result of the growing interaction between
Ethiopia and the external world, particularly the western
European countries
• Emperor Haile Silassie developed strong aspiration to
view Ethiopia as a modern state to the rest of the
world
✓ The emperor had to convince the world that his country was
modernizing and taking her place among the civilized states
✓ However, the 1931 constitution was failed to achieve
external goals as intended by the emperor
Internal Factors
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 ✓ It was intended to provide a legal framework for the
suppression of the powerful traditional nobilities to the
emperor
✓ The emperor has a deep interest of centralizing the state
power in the internal politics of the country
• This was effectively done by absolutist nature of the
constitution
5.5.3. The Revised Constitution of 1955
▪ Ethiopian politics were profoundly affected by World War II and
its aftermath. The emperor had been driven into exile when
beginning in 1935 the Italian Fascists occupied the country for
just over five years
✓ the Ethiopian Orthodox Church and the traditional
aristocracy were severely weakened
▪ the emperor was restored to the throne by the British in 1941
▪ the world had also been profoundly changed by the War.
Ethiopia was surrounded by African colonies which were
rapidly gaining their independence and left by the departing
colonialists with varying forms of democratic institutions. This
trend led to pressures for reform on the Imperial Crown from
younger Ethiopians
▪ There were constellations of social and political events that
urged the revision of the 1931 constitution
▪ The Revised Constitution continued to reinforce the process of
centralization
▪ The Constitution spent one chapter settling the issue of
succession on the rule of male primogeniture.
▪ Detailed provisions vested in the Emperor wide powers over
the military, foreign affairs, local administration and so forth
✓ He was both the head of state and of the government and
he continued to oversee the judiciary through his Chilot
(Crown Court)
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 ▪ it also contained an elaborate regime of civil and political rights
for the subjects. In theory, the Constitution was the supreme
law of the land governing even the Emperor
▪ It was revised because of internal and external factors mainly
to cope up with the social and political dynamics of the then
period, global politics, and Ethio-Eritrean federation
▪ revised version comes with a slight modification in the structure
of the system of governance, limiting the power of the emperor
to a certain extent and a relatively better recognition of rights
and freedoms
▪ The federation of Eritrea with Ethiopia led to the addition of two
new documents in to the Ethiopia legal system
✓ the federal act and the Eritrean constitution
✓ Both documents were far modern and better than the
existing traditional 1931 constitution of the imperial
government. Thus, the emperor was forced to revise the
1931 Constitution
5.5.4. The 1987 Constitution of People’s Democratic Republic
Ethiopia (PDRE)
▪ Immediately after came to power, the Dergue setup the
Provisional Military Administrative Council (PMAC) type of
temporary government
▪ The PMAC presented itself for elections through a new party-
the Workers’ Party of Ethiopia. The party became the vanguard
communist party
▪ After coming to power the Dergue issued a series of decrees
and proclamations that was used as legal rules until the
adoption of 1987 constitution
▪ However, these, decrees and proclamations cannot be given a
constitutional status because it does not touch basic
constitutional issues
✓ the time from 1974-1987 was a period vacuum in Ethiopia
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 of constitutional
▪ The People’s Democratic Republic Ethiopia constitution (1987)
was different from the 1931 and the 1955 imperial constitutions
in that constitution
✓ State and religion were separated – secularism
✓ State the political power and sovereignty were declared to
be the preserve of the working people of Ethiopia
✓ contains provisions on democratic and human rights
✓ recognized the different cultural identities and the equality
of Nation and Nationalities
✓ Introduced a party system by giving recognition to the
workers party of Ethiopia
• leading to a transition from a none party system to a
single party system
✓ aimed at the principles of Marxist and Leninist ideology
✓ Aimed at giving power to the peoples so that they
exercise through referendum, local and national assembly
▪ Practically, however, the 1987 constitution was not different
from the 1931 and 1955 constitutions
5.5.5. The 1995 (FDRE) Constitution
▪ The FDRE constitution has a wider coverage of both human
and democratic rights. one third (approximately 33 articles) is
devoted to the discussion of rights
Features
✓ introduction of a federal form of governance
✓ assignment of the competence of determining
constitutionality to the second chamber of the parliament
✓ embod many of the core egalitarian principles including the
principle of self- determination of collectivities, rule of law,
democracy e.t.c
▪ In the second chapter, the Constitution gives recognition to five
fundamental principles
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 ✓ principles of popular sovereignty (art. 8)
✓ constitutionalism and constitutional supremacy (art. 9)
✓ sanctity of human rights (art. 10)
✓ secularism (art. 11)
✓ accountability and transparency of government (Art.12)
5.6. Democracy and Democratization
5.6.1. Defining Democracy
▪ Democracy literally means the government of the people or
government of the majority.
▪ Etymologically, the word democracy is derived from two Greek
words
➢ demos - common people
➢ kratos – rule (legitimate power to rule)
▪ in its original sense democracy means “rule by the people”
▪ Gradually, however, the meaning of this term is evolving and
changing substantively
Abraham Lincoln definition
✓ a government comes from the people; it is exercised by
the people, and for the purpose of the people’s own
interests
✓ he defined between two contrasting notions of
democracy
• government by the people
- public participates in government and indeed
governs itself
• government for the people
- public interest and the idea that government
benefits the people, whether or not they
themselves rule.
The lexicon or dictionary definition
✓ democracy is a state of government in which people
hold the ruling power either directly or indirectly through
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 their elected representatives
✓ in democratic system, state power involves compromise
and bargaining in decision- making process in a
democratic system
Joseph Schumpeter definition
✓ Democracy is institutional arrangement for arriving at
political decisions in which individuals acquire the power
to decide by means of a competitive struggle for the
people’s vote
✓ rulers are held accountable for their actions in the public
realm and citizens act indirectly through the competition
and cooperation of their elected representatives.
▪ classical conception of democracy
✓ rooted in the ideal of popular participation/ Athenian
democracy
• Athenian democracy was the direct and continuous
participation of all citizens in the life of their polis or
city-state
▪ Democracy can also be conceived as the institutionalization of
freedom
✓ it refers to the process of organizing agencies that can
watch the respect of rights and freedoms
✓ freedom means responsibility to do in line with national
interest and then answerable for one’s actions and
inactions
▪ direct vs indirect democracy
➢ Direct democracy/ pure/classical democracy
- the right to make political decisions is exercised
directly by the whole body of citizens acting under
procedures of majority rule
- was mainly practiced in Ancient Greece city states
- In modern society it lost its validity because of the
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 population size and substituted by indirect/
representative democracy.
- However even in modern times there are some cases
that governments applied direct democracy. These
include
▪ referendum
▪ recall
▪ initiative
▪ plebiscite
➢ Indirect democracy/ representative democracy
- citizens exercise their rights not in person but through
representatives chosen by themselves
- representatives will act on the behalf of the citizens
▪ for democracy to flourish, this are needed:
➢ procedural democracy
- specific procedural norms must be charted
➢ substantive democracy
- fundamental rights and freedoms of citizens must be
respected
▪ modern democracy constitutes three key portions
✓ democracy
✓ constitutionalism
✓ respect for human rights
5.6.2. Values and Principles of Democracy
▪ fair and free elections are the prerequisite of democracy
▪ rule of the law, protection and freedom of human rights and
supremacy of the constitution are important elements in true
democratic system
▪ three core values that are central in the discussion of the
concept of democracy
Liberty
✓ This value includes:
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 ➢ personal freedom
- Individuals should be free from arbitrary arrest
and detention
- Their homes/property should be secured from
unreasonable searches and seizures
➢ political freedom
- people of a nation have the right to participate
freely in the political process such as elections
➢ economic freedom
- citizens should have the right to acquire, use,
transfer and dispose of private property without
unreasonable governmental interference
- right to seek employment
- right to engage in any lawful labor unions
Justice
✓ three general senses of fairness:
➢ distributive Justice
- distributing benefits and burdens in society via
agreed up on standards of fairness
➢ corrective Justice
- proportional response should be in place to correct
wrongs and injuries
➢ procedural justice
- gathering information and making decisions should
be guided by such principles as impartiality and
openness of proceedings

Equality
✓ Three notions of equality:
➢ political equality
- all people who attain the status of adult hood have
equal political rights
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 - one man-one vote- one value
➢ social equality
- no social hierarchy at individual and collective level
or no discrimination
➢ economic equality
- all peoples of a country deserve equal and fair
assessment to the national resources & services
▪ fundamental principles of democracy
❖ Popular Sovereignty
• the citizen as a whole is the sovereign of the state and
holds the ultimate authority over public officials and
their policies. Consent is given by the people through
their regularly elected representatives
• people have the right to withdraw their consent when
the government fails to fulfill its obligations under the
constitution
• principle of majority rule - majorities should have the
right to make political decisions
• The preamble of the Ethiopian Constitution expressly
providing the doctrine of popular sovereignty, or rule
by the people, Article 8
❖ Constitutional Supremacy
• puts the constitution at the highest level in the
hierarchy of laws.
• Constitutions are meta-rules (rules about how to
make rules), or the Basic Law
• it is original law by which the system of government is
created
- It is original because it is directly made by the
people as the direct expression of the will of the
people
❖ Rule of Law
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 • There are two aspects of the rule of law that are
important
1. the law should govern the people and the people
should obey the law
2. the law must be capable of being obeyed (‘good’
laws)
- rule of law different from ‘rule of men’ where
the people were ruled by ‘bad’ laws
• rule of law is the principle under which a government
exercises its authority in accordance with clear,
objective, and publicly disclosed laws
• The principle is intended to be a safeguard against
arbitrary rule
❖ Secularism
• an approach that asserts to dismiss or ignores God,
the divine, the supernatural, and other religious
viewpoints when discussing or participating in politics
• Emphasis is placed on human excellence, potential,
fulfillment, “actualization,” and so on, instead of the
Godly, providential, or spiritual dimensions of life
• secularists demand a strict separation of religion and
politics
• Secularism is mostly understood to mean separation
of state and religion
❖ Separation of Powers
• political power should be divided among several
bodies or officers of the state as a precaution against
too much concentration of power
• constitutionalism ensures that the principal powers of
government legislative, executive, and judicial-were
not monopolized by any single branch

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 ❖ Free, Fair and Periodic Election
• election should be free means all interested parties to
the election should get the chance to participate in the
election
• fair means after giving the chance of participation all
of them should be treated equally without
discrimination
• election should be conducted periodically with fixed
duration
❖ Majority Rule Minority Right
• those who gets the majority vote will establish a
government
• The policies, programs and decisions of the majority
will govern the country while the right of the minority
respected
❖ Protection and Promotion of Human Rights
❖ Multiparty System
• having several political parties working together in
one political system
• political parties should get equal constitutional
guarantee, support and treatment to compete for
elections and present their offer freely to the voters
5.6.3. Democratization
▪ Democracy is a variable not a fixed phenomenon; it changes
and develops over time
• needs to be planted and nourished by years of practice
and experience through various levels of democratization
process
▪ Democratization: the process of transitions from
nondemocratic to democratic regimes that occur within a
specified period of time and that significantly outnumber
transitions in the opposite direction during that period
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 ▪ There are three main elements in democratization
✓ the removal of the authoritarian regime
✓ installation of a democratic regime
✓ consolidation, or long-term sustainability of the
democratic regime
▪ Democratization involves the full-scale transition from
authoritarian regime and its replacement by democratically
elected regime
5.6.4. Actors of Democratization
Political Parties
✓ parties have put such a strong mark on contemporary
politics and democracy that twentieth century democracy
could be best described as party democracy
✓ parties are ―endemic to democracy, an unavoidable part
of democracy
✓ majority party or a combination of parties controls the
government, while other parties serve as the opposition
and attempt to check the abuses of power by the ruling
party
✓ political parties acts as a bridge between a society and its
government
Media
✓ Media is a mirror of the society and how democratic a
society is, can be represented through media
✓ media has an influential role in strengthening democracy.
Hence, media and democracy have strong association
▪ Countries which are strong democracies always have
strong and free media
✓ Media in all countries serves as a watchdog, as a source
of information, a civic forum and an agenda setter
- Watchdogs - monitoring those in power and provide
citizens with the information they need to be free and
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 self-governing and to hold governments accountable
for their actions.
Civic Societies
✓ Civil society is the set of civil rights, including primarily
everyone’s right to participate in public life
✓ civil society encompasses “private citizens acting
collectively to make demands to the state or to express in
the public sphere their interests, preferences and ideas or
to check the authority of the state and make it
accountable”
✓ Civil society may comprise civic, issue-oriented, religious,
and educational interest groups and associations.
5.7. Human Rights: Concepts and Theories
5.7.1. What Are Human Rights?
▪ Human rights are basic to humanity. They apply to all people
everywhere
▪ The notion of human rights infers that fundamental
entitlements belong to every member of the human race.
✓ These are privileges someone can claim just because
he/she is a human being without any discrimination based
on condition
✓ They derived from fundamental human dignity and worth
✓ The only precondition someone needs to fulfill in order to
claim human rights is being a human
▪ also called ‘natural’ rights, since they are natural entitlements
to everyone
▪ The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR, Article 2),
stipulates that human rights belong to every human being
“without distinction of any kind”
▪ Human rights provide the minimum standards indispensable
for people to live worth-living life
▪ by guaranteeing life, liberty, and security, human rights protect
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 people against abuse by individuals and groups who are more
powerful
▪ Human rights are established upon some main principles
including universality, inalienability, indivisibility and
interdependence
human rights are universal
✓ show their worldwide applicability
✓ all rights are expected to be applied equally everywhere,
every-time and to everyone in this world
✓ They transcend time, geographical and cultural disparities
Human rights are inalienable
✓ That means you cannot lose these rights any more than
you can stop to be a human being
✓ Human rights are not luxury rather part of our basic
necessities
✓ Human rights are indivisible. This implies that human
rights are inherent to the dignity of every human person
Human rights are interdependent and interrelated
✓ all rights have equal weight/importance, and it is not
possible for one to fully enjoy any of his/her right without
the others
✓ The violation of all these rights threatens one’s life and
existence in general
✓ we cannot prioritize one right from others, because no
right can stand on itself
▪ principle of equality and non- discrimination
✓ all individuals are equal as human beings and by virtue of
the inherent dignity of each human person
5.7.2. Human Rights and Responsibilities
▪ Human rights involve responsibility and duties toward other
people and the community

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 ▪ Individuals often have a responsibility to ensure that they
exercise their rights with due regard for the rights of others
✓ example, exercising freedom of speech should not infringe
someone else’s right to privacy
▪ Human rights protection and fulfillment is considered as one of
the functions of governments, one of the very reasons why
people need a government or political system in general
5.7.3. Landmarks in Development of Human Rights
▪ The modern human rights notions are the result of extended
tussles to end many forms of oppressions; including slavery,
genocide, discrimination, and government tyranny, in history of
world societies
▪ human rights are a set of individual and collective rights that
have been formally promoted and protected through
international and domestic law since the adoption of UDHR in
1948
5.7.4. Rights Holders and Duty Bearers
➢ Right holders
✓ those who are entitled to enjoy, possess or claim a given
right
➢ Duty bearers
✓ those who carry the obligation of promoting, protecting,
and fulfilling these right to the right holders
✓ There must be always someone you will claim the
protection, provision and fulfillment of your rights from and
become accountable for any failures to do so
▪ The primary (not the only) duty bearer for almost all of our
rights is the state
• individuals and other non-state actors may be named as
duty bearers depending on the nature of the right
▪ uninterrupted and cyclic relationship is expected among rights
holders and duty bearers
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5.7.5. Categories of Human Rights
Civil and Political Rights - first generation rights
• uphold the sanctity of the individual before the law and
guarantee his or her ability to participate freely in civil,
economic, and political society
• Civil rights include such rights as
- right to life
- liberty
- personal security
- equality before the law
- protection from arbitrary arrest
- right to religious freedom and worship
✓ civil rights guarantee one's 'personhood' and freedom
from state-sanctioned interference or violence
• Political rights include
- right to speech and expression
- right to assembly and association
- right to vote and political participation
✓ Political rights thus guarantee individual rights to
involvement in public affairs and the affairs of state
• Civil and political rights are seen as an:
Immediately realizable rights
- This is to mean that all states, regardless of their
economic, social, cultural and political developments
or realities, are expected to ensure the realization of
these rights immediately
- No precondition could be acceptable for any violations
of civil and political rights
• They have also been called as
‘negative’ rights
- indicate the fact that they simply entail the absence
of their violation in order to be upheld
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 - protection is the main obligation of the duty bearers
for civil and political rights.
Social, Economic & cultural Rights - second generation
• an aspirational and programmatic set of rights that
national governments ought to strive to achieve through
progressive implementation
• Social and economic rights include
- right to education, health and wellbeing, work and fair
remuneration
- right to form trade unions and free associations,
leisure time, and the right to social security
• When protected, these rights help promote individual
flourishing, social and economic development, and self-
esteem
• Cultural rights include such rights as
- the right to the benefits of culture, indigenous land,
rituals, and shared cultural practices
- right to speak one's own language and ‘mother
tongue’ education
• civil and political rights, rights in this category are called
‘positive’ rights
- indicate that whose realization is highly subjected to
the economic capability of states
✓ counter- arguments to this false dichotomy is to assert
that all rights are positive since the full protection of all
categories of human rights ultimately relies on the
relative fiscal capacity of states
• Second generation rights are considered as
“less fundamental” or unrealistic rights because of the
issues of justiciability
✓ For this category of rights there is a room for the state
to justify duty failure referring to lack of capacity,
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 resources or finance
✓ For instance, suppose you are living in Ethiopia and
you are still unemployed, considered as human rights
violation only if the state is economically capable
Peace, Development and Environmental Rights - Third
generation (solidarity) rights
• aimed to guarantee that all individuals and groups have
the right to share in the benefits of the earth's natural
resources, as well as those goods and products that are
made through processes of economic growth, expansion,
and innovation
• Many of these rights are transnational in nature
- They requires redistribution of wealth, resources from
developed to developing nations
• Solidarity rights also require global cooperation and
shared responsibility to world peace, development and the
environment
• considered as
an emerging rights
- rights holders and duty bearers of the rights included
under this category are yet to be identified clearly

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5.7.6. Derogations and Limitations on Human Rights
▪ There are two conditions under which human rights can be
restricted: limitation and derogation
▪ Limitations
✓ lawful infringements of rights
✓ are deviations from the standard manner of dealing with
rights imposed primarily to facilitate optimal use or
exercise of rights in a context of scarce public resources,
space and time
✓ Limitations can take the form of restrictions and/or
derogation
➢ Restrictions
- acceptable or justifiable limits of human rights
during the normal times
- Restrictions circumscribed the manner, or place,
and the extent to which rights can be enjoyed in a
particular set of circumstances in normal times
➢ Derogation
- a temporary non-application and suspension of
rights by the state in abnormal or emergency
(natural/artificial) situations
▪ limitation should not be arbitrary, it should be based on legality,
necessity, rationality and proportionality supposed to be
determined by the human rights law
▪ Limitations may be made on the enjoyment of human rights for
the sake of
• safeguarding of national security or public peace
• prevention of crimes
• the protection of health, public morality
• protection of the rights and freedom of others
• safeguarding democratic institutions

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 ▪ FDRE Constitution (art. 93) clearly specifies four conditions for
declare state of emergency. The Council of Ministers can
declare a State of Emergency in the following situations
1. External Invasion
2. Breakdown of law and order when it
- endangers the constitutional order
- cannot be controlled by regular law enforcement
3. Natural disaster
4. Epidemic
5.7.7. Non-derogability of Human Rights
▪ States believe that some provisions of derogability are
necessary to allow them exercise their sovereign power during
exceptional circumstances for the greater good of their people
- However, this kind of derogation is not unconditional and it
has its own limits
▪ There are also certain unique and inherent human rights,
which can never be suspended under any circumstances
▪ For instance, the ICCPR, which also allows states to suspend
some of the rights under specific conditions, clearly mentions
that some of the articles are non-derogable. They are
✓ right against arbitrary deprivation of life (art. 6)
✓ freedom from torture or cruel, inhuman and degrading
treatment or punishment; and freedom from medical or
scientific experimentation without consent (art. 7)
✓ freedom from slavery and servitude (art. 8)
✓ freedom from imprisonment for inability to fulfill a
contractual obligation (art. 11)
✓ prohibition against the retrospective operation of criminal
laws (art. 15)
✓ right to recognition before the law (art. 16)
✓ freedom of thought, conscience and religion (art. 18).

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5.7.8. Implementation and Enforcement of Human Rights
5.7.8.1. International Mechanisms and the International Bill of
Human Rights
▪ main objectives of the international law and its institutions is in
one way or another related with the protection of human rights
▪ Charter of the United Nations make protection of human rights
one of the three main objectives of the UN
▪ The United Nations has six prime organs, namely
1. General Assembly - legislative (law making)
2. Security Council - executive (law enforcing)
3. Economic & Social Council (ECOSOC)
4. International Criminal Court (ICC) - judiciary (law
interpreting)
5. Office of the Secretariat
6. Trusteeship Council (Suspended operations-1994 with the
independence of Palau)
▪ The Office of High Commissioner for Human Rights
(OHCHR) is established under the ECOSOC, and is an organ
particularly dedicated to the promotion, observance and
monitoring of human rights worldwide
▪ international bill of human rights is made up of various
treaty and charter based human rights instruments; treaties,
covenants, charters and declarations
▪ The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR)
✓ It is a human rights instruments considered as the
groundwork of most of the post-1945 codification of
human rights.
✓ It is the basis for human rights protection and promotion
around the world and has been endorsed by all countries.
Many countries have included its provisions in their basic
laws or constitutions
✓ The UDHR is not a binding instrument but claimed to
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 have great moral weight and popularity
• Thus, no obligation can be drawn from that
instrument, since it is not a treaty based document.
However, its wider global acceptance is enabling it to
be seen as a customary law
▪ Besides to the UN Charter and the UDHR, the UN presently
has more than ten core human rights treaty based human
rights instruments
✓ Each of the human rights treaty instruments has an
autonomous monitoring body, composed of independent
experts who examine the reports that signatory nations
submit under the treaty
▪ Ethiopia is a signatory member to all of the aforementioned
core international human rights instruments
5.7.8.2. Regional Mechanisms
▪ In addition to the international human rights regime functioned
under the UN umbrella, there are regional human rights
systems which cover three parts of the world
✓ Africa
✓ Americas
✓ Europe
▪ if an individual or groups feel that his/her/their rights are not
protected on the domestic level, “the international system
comes into play, and protection can be provided by the global
or the regional system”
▪ regional human rights systems are currently established only in
Europe, Africa and American regions
- In African, this system is established under the African
Union (AU) structure
- in the Americas it is part of the Organization of American
States (OAS)
- in Europe it is embedded in the European Union’s (EU)
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 organizational structure
▪ Regional human rights systems are also recognized for
providing a better systems of enforcement than the global
system
✓ It allows regions to apply the relevant enforcement
mechanism that fits to their context
✓ Example: example, the EU founds judicial approaches
more appropriate and the AU inclined to non-judicial
mechanism
5.7.9. The Ethiopian Human Rights System
▪ The foundation of the observance of the human rights in
Ethiopia is the FDRE Constitution, which was ratified in 1994
✓ FDRE Constitution classifies human rights as one of its
five fundamental principles
✓ The FDRE Constitution has established a national human
rights regimes by recognizing most of the human rights
entitlements acknowledged by the core international and
regional human rights instruments
✓ About one-third of the Constitution is devoted to
enshrining fundamental rights and freedoms
✓ Article 9/4/ and Article 13 of the Constitution state that
international agreements ratified by Ethiopia are an
integral part of the law of the land
▪ Constitution has required the establishment of human rights
and democratic institutions; including
- the national human rights commission
- general attorney office and office of ombudsmen, with an
independent judiciary or courts equipped with the needed
resources
▪ established institutions with the specific and prominent
mandate of respect and promotions of human rights and the
main organizations in this respect are
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 ➢ the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission (EHRC)
➢ the Ethiopian Institution of the Ombudsman (EIO)
Additionally,
➢ the Federal and Regional Ethics and Anti-Corruption
Commissions and the Chief Auditor’s Office
▪ The National Election Board was established on the basis of
the Constitution’s dictum that state power can be assumed
only through representatives elected by universal and equal
suffrage held by secret ballot, guaranteeing the free expression
of the will of the electors

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