Federalism Vis a Vis the Right to Freedom of Movement and Residence

Abstract The FDRE constitution has established ethnic federal arrangement in one hand and incorporates everyone’s right to freedom of movement and residence everywhere within Ethiopian territory on the other. Besides this, ethnic self determination has established as a cornerstone of the federal system. But, there is no any single study has conducted to look at the practical serene coexistence of Ethiopian federal system and the right to freedom of movement and residence. Thus, the main issue addressed in this paper is whether the federal system has implemented properly in congruent with the right to freedom of movement and residence of individuals in Ethiopia. The thesis has also tried to explore whether the institutions put in place to safeguard the right to freedom of movement and residence has worked efficiently and effectively by way of giving the required remedy in case of violation. In doing so the writer has analyzed cases with integrating interview responses as well as explores other countries experiences. After conducting serious analysis, the writer has, eventually, reached to the following findings: ethnic federal setup of Ethiopia has practically negative implication on the right to freedom of movement and residence; ethnic based political parties are also responsible for the violation due to their contribution to the increasing ethnic consciousness of the society. Governmental safeguard institutions are not properly safeguarding this right from the pitfall of Ethiopian ethnic federal system; Misuse of ethnicity for political game by the ruling EPRDF party has aggravated the impact of ethnic federal system on the violation of such freedom.