The Ethiopian Constitution of 1995, adopted during the EPRDF and framed as a foundation for a democratic federation, places peace at the center of its national vision. Its preamble affirms the people’s collective commitment “to live as one economic community and to create a common destiny in peace.” This suggests that peace is not merely a political goal but a constitutional principle meant to guide the Ethiopian state.
Beyond the preamble, the Constitution establishes obligations that indirectly safeguard peace. Article 9 binds Ethiopia to respect international treaties, while Article 13 requires that fundamental rights be interpreted in line with international human rights law. The federal arrangement, which grants “nations, nationalities, and peoples” the right to self-determination, was itself designed to reduce violent conflict by acknowledging Ethiopia’s deep diversity. Yet the Constitution does not make the right to peace directly justiciable. There is no legal pathway for citizens—or entire regions like Tigray—to invoke the right to peace before a court. This absence of enforceability has left Tigrayans without constitutional protection during years of state violence.
International Legal Frameworks
Ethiopia’s international commitments reinforce its constitutional obligation to uphold peace. The ratification of the African Union Convention for the Protection and Assistance of Internally Displaced Persons in Africa, widely known as the Kampala Convention, through Proclamation 1187/2020, legally bound Ethiopia to prevent displacement, protect IDPs during conflict, and ensure durable solutions in post-conflict contexts. Similarly, Ethiopia has endorsed the United Nations Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement, which emphasize protection, assistance, and safe voluntary return as key state responsibilities.
In principle, these frameworks operationalize peace by creating legal duties to shield civilians from displacement and to restore their dignity after conflict. In practice, however, they remain unimplemented. For Tigray, where millions were displaced between 2020 and 2022, these protections were entirely absent. Camps for displaced civilians were starved of resources, humanitarian access was obstructed, and no meaningful effort has been made to provide durable solutions for the displaced. Rather than preventing displacement or protecting civilians, the Ethiopian government presided over one of the continent’s worst displacement crises and fails to provide any solution despite these laws or the Pretoria Peace Agreement.
Militarization and the Absence of Conscientious Objection
While the Ethiopian Constitution highlights peace in its founding principles, its laws prioritize militarization. Military service remains compulsory, and the country does not recognize the right of conscientious objection. Refusal to serve in the military is treated as a criminal offense, and there is no legal protection for those who reject participation in war on moral, political, or religious grounds.
The existential plight of ex-Tigrayan UN peacekeepers stranded in Sudan is emblematic of how Ethiopia’s militaristic framework erases avenues for objection and disproportionately punishes Tigrayans. Despite conscription being abolished in the 1990s, Ethiopia offers no legal provision for conscientious objection—a void that leaves those who refuse to fight without constitutional protection or alternatives. Desertion or refusal can lead to harsh penalties, including long imprisonment or even death. This systemic void is layered over an acute climate of ethnic repression: during the 2021–2022 state of emergency was announced in parallel to the war in Tigray. Ethiopia’s government granted sweeping powers and facilitated mass detentions of people of Tigrayan descent—even those with no ties to the TDF. In this militarized maze, Tigrayan individuals—already subjected to ethnic profiling, travel bans, arbitrary searches, and financial restrictions—were silenced, weaponized, and deprived of the legal right to refuse participation in a war that targets their own communities.
Tigray’s Experience: A Broken Promise
For Tigray, the constitutional guarantee of peace has been systematically violated. Instead of protection, civilians endured massacres, horrific sexual violence, and the deliberate destruction of cultural and religious institutions. Instead of durable solutions for displaced persons, millions were left without assistance or safe pathways to return. Instead of the provision of basic needs, a starvation siege was imposed, depriving Tigrayans of food, medicine, and essential services. Instead of demilitarization, the state refused to recognize the right to conscientious objection.
These experiences expose the hollowness of Ethiopia’s constitutional and international commitments. Peace, as articulated in legal texts, never translated into protection on the ground for Tigrayans.
Toward Enforceable Peace
The Ethiopian Constitution promised peace as a foundation for coexistence, but its symbolic commitments have failed to shield vulnerable populations. Moving forward, constitutional reform must make the right to peace justiciable, ensuring that citizens and regions can seek legal remedy when peace is violated. Ratified frameworks such as the Kampala Convention and the UN Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement must be fully implemented, guaranteeing protection and durable solutions for displaced communities. Legal recognition of conscientious objection is also critical, ensuring that individuals are not forced into wars they reject.
Above all, peace in Ethiopia requires accountability. Without justice for the atrocities committed in Tigray, the promise of peace will remain empty rhetoric. For Tigrayans, peace has been deferred and denied. Yet peace, grounded in enforceable rights and genuine accountability, is the only path to rebuilding lives, restoring dignity, and preventing future cycles of violence.
