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Ethiopia Citizenship, Freedoms, Rights, and Duties
Chapters 6 and 7 were concerned with defining citizenship
and spelling out the freedoms, rights, and duties of
citizens. The language was egalitarian, and Ethiopians were
declared to be equal before the law, regardless of
nationality, sex, religion, occupation, and social or other
status. They had the right to marry, to work, to rest, to
receive free education, and to have access to health care
and to a fair trial. Ethiopians were guaranteed freedom of
conscience and religion. As was not the case in imperial
Ethiopia, religion and the state were proclaimed to be
separate institutions. Citizens were assured the freedoms of
movement, speech, press, assembly, peaceful demonstration,
and association. Regarding political participation, citizens
had the right to vote and the right to be elected to
political office. Their duties included national military
service, protection of socialist state property, protection
of the environment, and observance of the constitution and
laws of the country.
In spite of the attention the constitution paid to basic
freedoms, until the last days of the regime international
human rights organizations were virtually unanimous in
condemning the Mengistu regime. Summary execution, political
detention, torture, and forced migration represented only
some of the violations cited by these groups (see
Human
Rights, ch. 5).
Data as of 1991
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