Mebrahtu Yonas

Protection of Internal National Minorities in Ethiopia: the Case of Raya Oromo in Tigray Regional State Mebrahtu Yonas

Many ethnically diversified countries favored federalism as a best means of accommodation for linguistic, cultural and territorial autonomy interests of their people. Accordingly, Ethiopia has adopted ethnic based federalism since 1991 which enabled some ethnic groups to establish their own sub-national governments (regions). Yet this system hardly became attractive for internal national minorities (i.e. an ethnic groups who forms majority in one region but minorities in another region) since the procedure of protection controlled by regional majorities and high degree of systematic assimilation. This book, therefore, examines the procedure for recognition and protection of internal minorities under Ethiopian constitutional system and how the absence of constitutional protection affects cultural, linguistic, and political rights of such groups by giving special emphasis on the case of Raya Oromo in Tigray region. It scrutinizes the issue in light with international law, Ethiopian constitution and regional constitution. The analysis would help as insight for political scientist, government officials and constitutional drafter s to conduct further research and use it as input.