CRYSTALLIZING THE RIGHT TO DEVELOPMENT DISCOURSE INTO THE ETHIOPIAN HUMAN RIGHTS SYSTEM: TOWARDS A FULL-BELLY FREE PERSON

Abstract

The FDRE Constitution recognizes the right to development. In so doing, it integrates
“development” and “human rights”. Employing doctrinal legal research method and
guided by an interpretivist paradigm, the article appraises the status of the discourse on the
right to development in the Ethiopian Human Rights System from the perspective of the
United Nations Declaration on the Right to Development (DRD), Vienna Declaration and
Program of Action (VDPA) and the Banjul Charter. It relies on primary sources such as the
FDRE Constitution, the DRD, the VDPA and the Banjul Charter. It also uses relevant
literatures as secondary sources. The finding indicates that even though the Constitution
recognizes the right to development and some policy steps were undertaken for its
realization, the discourse on this right is not adequately crystallized into the country’s
human rights system as compared to the degree of the depth and breadth it gained under the
DRD and in the African Human Rights System. As such, this right has not been
conceptualized and put into practice in a way that enable individuals both to fill their belly
and to be free to live with dignity. Rather, the human rights system of the country has been
predominantly in a “full-belly thesis” or “Lee thesis” condition. It is recommended that reconceptualizing this right in a composite manner that embraces civil, political, economic,
social, cultural and environmental rights altogether and respecting, protecting and fulfilling
it in practice is essential to enable the Ethiopian People to live a life of dignity.