Biblio

As is customary in federations, the federal constitution of Ethiopia has allocated state
powers between the federal government and the federated entities or regional states. One of the
powers thus attributed to Ethiopia’s regional states is constitutional autonomy or the power to
enact their own constitutions. The nine regions established by the federal constitution have all
exercised this power so that today’s constitutional construct in Ethiopia consists of one federal
and nine regional constitutions. Although the federal constitution constitutes the legal foundation
of the regional constitutions and simultaneously offers the framework within which the regions
can exercise constitutional autonomy, the latter are left with considerable discretionary powers
to determine form and substance of their constitutions. For instance, the regions can draft their
own bill of human rights (as long as these do not violate the human rights protected under the
federal constitution), they can design their own political institutions and they can organize their
own administrative set-up. Hence, in order to understand the human rights protection at the
regional level, the structure and powers of the regional and sub-regional governmental
institutions and the relationship between the different administrative hierarchies, an analysis of
the regional constitutions is mandatory. Since such analysis has not been given due attention in
legal scholarship, this paper offers a brief comparative study of all nine regional constitutions.
After having discussed and compared all chapters of the regional constitutions, the paper
concludes that although the regional constitutions are similar in many respects, there are areas
where significant differences can be observed. This indicates that the regional constitutions are
indeed reflective of the specific societies for which they have been drafted. For instance, regional
constitutional provisions with regards to the regional institutional organization and the administrative set-up clearly take into account intra-regional ethnic constellations.