Constitutionalism in transition period Ethiopia: transition from structural violence to cultural violence (1991–1995)

The Transition Period Charter of Ethiopia was the foundational document to the Federal Constitution, only a step to cultural violence from direct and structural violence against human and democratic rights of the Ethiopian society. A doctrinal analysis was carried out on this Transitional Period Charter and its derivative laws against secondary sources of law. Historical materials were used to ascertain ‘what did the Peace Loving and Democratic Forces as the charter framers intend to achieve’. The Charter analysis revealed that ethnic groups political categorisation by the Transitional Period Government was only to escalate the use of physical power against civic/civil rights into social identity-based violence. Power was concentrated in the executive government. The transition period governance was dominated by political interests of the Tigray Peoples’ Liberation Front. The Charter categorised ethnic groups as political units in contested territorial jurisdictions with the right to self-determination, including secession. It highly entrenched the future constitutional status within an ethnic federal system that ethnic violent conflicts in federal Ethiopia escalated ever than before. The violence roots its causes with unrepresented decisions on ethnic categorisation and unnegotiated ethnic boundary demarcations by the Charter.