Towards Human Rights-centered Sustainable Development in the Federalist Ethiopia

Scrutinizing the Challenges and Opportunities

Abstract

The term sustainable development can be utilized in various manners according to different partisan interests; so it cannot be precisely elucidated in a single manner. However, it is possible to study the affairs of sustainable development with other notions like human rights, since sustainable development in its essence is the attempt of human beings to meet the needs of the present generations without compromising with the needs of future generations in all aspects. Therefore, sustainable development is a broad concept that deals with the capability of human beings to integrate their social, economic, environmental and political affairs in the way which cares for the present and future generations. Furthermore, human right is also a broad concept that extends from the right to live up to the right to have sustainable development. Thus, the concept of sustainable development does not hold water unless it is intermingled with the spices of respects for human rights and dignity. For this reason, to make sure that certain development is sustainable, it must be in the line of celebrating and enforcing fundamental freedoms and rights of the people at large. Thus, the material and financial accumulation and the increases in GDP cannot entirely witnesses the existences of sustainable development. Since warranting sustainable development necessitates a number of criteria; like human rights guarantees which encompass, Environmental, Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, Rights of Labor, the Right to Property, the Right to self-determination and others. Accordingly, the purpose of this research is to assess the existing challenges and opportunities to ensure human rights-centered sustainable development under the Ethiopian federation. To achieve its purpose, this research employs a qualitative methodology, which includes a review of related literatures, analyses of legal documents like the 1995 FDRE Constitution and other laws, and examining the practices. The findings of this research illustrate that there are legal and practical problems in warranting human rights-centered sustainable development in Ethiopia. In conclusion, to realize sustainable development, it must be substantiated by the recognition and enforcement of human rights guarantees; and the mere facts of increasing GDP without respect for fundamental rights and freedoms do not convey sustainable development.