A Critical Appraisal of the Protection Accorded to Socio-Economic Rights under the FDRE Constitution

Abstract

This article evaluates the protection accorded socio-economic rights under the FDRE Constitution. The extent to which the FDRE Constitution has guaranteed most of the socio-economic rights is unclear and it leads to several challenges. Socio-economic rights are incorporated under different parts of the constitution but, not protected as such civil and political rights. Based on an extensive review of legal documents, the protection accorded for socio-economic rights in Ethiopia may be explicitly, implicitly, or both. Focusing on the FDRE Constitution the author argues that the constitutional protection of socio-economic rights derives from the text of the Constitution itself, under fundamental rights and freedom, NPPO, international instruments ratified by Ethiopia, and through an integrated approach of socio-economic rights with civil and political rights. The article concludes that socio-economic rights are not protected as such civil and political rights it is possible to protect through different interpretations to increase the rights protection.