Ethiopia: marriage, divorce, inheritance and abortion

Fundamental rights

The Constitution of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, adopted in 1995, is the supreme law, and any law, customary practice or decision of a state organ or official that contravenes it is of no effect (Art. 9(1)); the Amharic version has final legal authority (Art. 106). Chapter Three binds federal and state organs at every level and must be interpreted in conformity with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenants on Human Rights and the international instruments adopted by Ethiopia (Art. 13). It guarantees the right to life, which may be taken only 'as a punishment for a serious criminal offence determined by law' (Art. 15), protection against bodily harm (Art. 16), liberty (Art. 17), protection against cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment and a ban on trafficking in human beings (Art. 18), privacy including the inviolability of correspondence and of communications by telephone, telecommunications and electronic devices (Art. 26), the equal rights of women (Art. 35), the rights of children (Art. 36) and access to a court (Art. 37).

Constitutional questions follow an unusual route. Art. 62(1) gives the House of the Federation the power to interpret the Constitution and Art. 83(1) provides that all constitutional disputes shall be decided by it, within thirty days of receiving a dispute from the Council of Constitutional Inquiry (Art. 83(2)). The Council investigates constitutional disputes; where a federal or state law is contested as unconstitutional and the dispute is submitted by a court or an interested party, the Council considers it and submits it to the House of the Federation for a final decision, and when a court raises a question of interpretation the Council either remands the case or sends its recommendation to the House (Art. 84).

Personal and family law is deliberately plural. The Constitution says that marriage under religious or customary systems may be given legal recognition by law (Art. 34(4)) and that it does not preclude the adjudication of personal and family disputes under religious or customary laws, with the consent of the parties (Art. 34(5)). The Federal Courts of Sharia Consolidation Proclamation No. 188/1999 establishes a Federal First Instance Court, High Court and Supreme Court of Sharia, with jurisdiction over marriage, divorce, maintenance, guardianship of minors and family relationships where the marriage was concluded under, or the parties have consented to, Islamic law, and over wakf, gifts and succession where the donor or deceased was Muslim (Art. 4(1)). A court of Sharia hears a case only if the parties expressly consent (Art. 4(2)); the respondent is summoned to confirm consent (Art. 5(1)); without clear consent the case goes to the regular federal court (Art. 5(3)); and once Sharia jurisdiction has been consented to, the case cannot be transferred to a regular court (Art. 5(4)).

The Ethiopian Human Rights Commission, established by Proclamation No. 210/2000 and amended by Proclamation No. 1224/2020 of 18 August 2020, is an autonomous organ of the Federal Government accountable to the House of Peoples' Representatives (Art. 3). It investigates on complaint or on its own initiative (Art. 6(4)) and has full power to receive and investigate complaints against any person, except cases brought before the House, the House of the Federation, a regional council or a court (Art. 7). The person whose rights are violated, a spouse, a family member, a representative or a third party may complain; anonymous complaints may be received considering the gravity of the violation; the service is free of charge (Art. 22); complaints may be oral, written or made in any other manner, in Amharic or in a region's working language (Art. 23). The Commission tries to settle complaints amicably and notifies its findings and proposed remedy to the head of the organ concerned and to the complainant (Art. 26). The 2020 amendment added powers to monitor human rights during elections and states of emergency and to visit, without prior notice, prisons, police detention centres, any place of custody, schools, hospitals, shelters and markets (Art. 6(11) to (13)), and extended to witnesses and whistleblowers the protection of Proclamation No. 699/2010 (Art. 25(4)).

Ethiopia acceded to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights on 11 June 1993, to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on 14 May 1991, to the Convention against Torture on 14 March 1994 and to the Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination on 23 June 1976, and ratified the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women on 10 September 1981 after signing it on 8 July 1980, with a reservation to Art. 29(1). At African level it ratified the Maputo Protocol on the rights of women on 18 July 2018 (instrument deposited on 17 September 2019), with seven reservations, among them on a widow's right to inherit and on registration as a condition of marriage, and six interpretative declarations. The United Nations treaty list for the Second Optional Protocol to the Covenant, on abolition of the death penalty, does not show Ethiopia among its participants.

The death penalty remains in law. Art. 15 of the Constitution allows the deprivation of life as a punishment for a serious criminal offence determined by law. The Criminal Code limits death sentences to grave crimes and exceptionally dangerous criminals, in the absence of any extenuating circumstances and only for an offender aged eighteen or more at the time of the crime (Art. 117(1)); a sentence must be confirmed by the Head of State and cannot be executed before non-remission by pardon or amnesty is ascertained (Art. 117(2)); it is not carried out in public but by humane means within the prison precincts (Art. 117(3)); it is not carried out on a seriously ill or irresponsible person or a pregnant woman while that state continues (Art. 119); and where a pregnant woman's child is born alive and she has to nurse it, the sentence may be commuted to rigorous imprisonment for life (Art. 120(1)).

Key points

In practice

• To complain about a violation of rights, call the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission on 7307 (toll-free) or write to report@ehrc.org; the complaint is free, may be oral or written and, in grave cases, anonymous (Proclamation No. 210/2000 Arts. 22 and 23).
• Complain to the Commission before going to court, since it cannot take cases that are brought before a court or before the House, the House of the Federation or a regional council (Art. 7).
• When a law is challenged as unconstitutional, the court or the interested party submits the dispute to the Council of Constitutional Inquiry, which refers it to the House of the Federation (Constitution Art. 84(2)).
• Before consenting to a family dispute being heard by a court of Sharia, note that the court hears the case only with express consent, that the respondent must confirm consent when summoned and that once consent is given the case cannot be transferred to a regular court (Proclamation No. 188/1999 Arts. 4(2), 5(1) and 5(4)).

Where to go

• Ethiopian Human Rights Commission, head office Sunshine Tower No. 5, Meskel Square, Bole Road, Addis Ababa, +251 11 550 4031, toll-free 7307, report@ehrc.org, info@ehrc.org.
• Council of Constitutional Inquiry and House of the Federation, for constitutional disputes (Constitution Arts. 62, 83 and 84).
• Federal Courts of Sharia, for family disputes where both parties consent to Islamic law (Proclamation No. 188/1999).

Frequently asked questions

Sources

• Constitution of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, 1995 (Constitute Project text; the Amharic version has final legal authority, Art. 106) — Arts. 9, 13 to 18, 26, 34, 35, 36, 37, 62, 83, 84 and 106
• Ethiopian Human Rights Commission Establishment Proclamation No. 210/2000, Federal Negarit Gazette No. 40, 4 July 2000 — Arts. 3, 6, 7, 22, 23 and 26
• Ethiopian Human Rights Commission Establishment (Amendment) Proclamation No. 1224/2020, Federal Negarit Gazette No. 75, 18 August 2020 — amendments to Arts. 6, 11 and 25
• Ethiopian Human Rights Commission -- contact page — head office address, telephone, toll-free 7307 and e-mail addresses
• Federal Courts of Sharia Consolidation Proclamation No. 188/1999, Federal Negarit Gazette No. 10, December 1999 — Arts. 3 to 6 (jurisdiction, consent, laws applied)
• Criminal Code of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, Proclamation No. 414/2004 (text as published; Equipo Nizkor copy) — Arts. 117 to 120 (death penalty)
• United Nations Treaty Collection -- International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, participants — Ethiopia: accession 11 June 1993
• United Nations Treaty Collection -- International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, participants — Ethiopia: accession 11 June 1993
• United Nations Treaty Collection -- Convention on the Rights of the Child, participants — Ethiopia: accession 14 May 1991
• United Nations Treaty Collection -- Convention against Torture, participants — Ethiopia: accession 14 March 1994
• United Nations Treaty Collection -- Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, participants — Ethiopia: accession 23 June 1976
• United Nations Treaty Collection -- Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, participants — Ethiopia: signed 8 July 1980, ratified 10 September 1981; reservation to Art. 29(1)
• African Union, status list of the Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa (Maputo Protocol) with reservations and declarations, 19 September 2023 — Ethiopia: signed 1 June 2004, ratified 18 July 2018, deposited 17 September 2019; reservations to Arts. 6(c), 6(d), 6(f), 7(a), 10(3), 21(1) and 27; six declarations
• United Nations Treaty Collection -- Second Optional Protocol to the ICCPR aiming at the abolition of the death penalty, participants — Ethiopia absent from the list of participants

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