Citizens’ Political Security in Ethiopia

Abstract

This article seeks to examine the situation of human rights by emphasizing the civil and political rights of citizens, the state of freedom of association and assembly, political parties, and media freedom. The article has come up with four major findings. The first is the lack of commitment to human rights obligations on the part of the incumbent regimes in Ethiopia. This had been manifested by the failure of the state party to carry out its human rights responsibilities or obligations that are included in three different dimensions to ‘respect’, ‘protect’, and ‘fulfill’. The second is political intolerance that the refutation of freedom of association, assembly, and press particularly for critical political dissidents and opposition groups is the norm in Ethiopia. The existing regime did not demonstrate the will to respect these rights. The third feature is the drift towards narrow political space. This trend was manifested by government repressive measures against organized groups and civil society organizations. The last finding is that the regime engaged in the obstruction of the activities of independent media. There had been a stringent press law and the phenomena of intimidation and detention of journalists are common practices. Keywords : Political security; citizens; human rights; freedom of association and assembly; political parties and media freedom DOI: 10.7176/DCS/11-7-01 Publication date: July 31 st 2021