English
1. Every Nation, Nationality and People in Ethiopia has an unconditional right to
self-determination, including the right to secession.
2. Every Nation, Nationality and People in Ethiopia has the right to speak, to
write and to develop its own language; to express, to develop and to promote
its culture; and to preserve its history.
3. Every Nation, Nationality and People in Ethiopia has the right to a full
measure of self-government which includes the right to establish institutions
of government in the territory that it inhabits and to equitable representation in
state and Federal governments.
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4. The right to self-determination, including secession, of every Nation,
Nationality and People shall come into effect:
(a) When a demand for secession has been approved by a two-thirds majority
of the members of the Legislative Council of the Nation, Nationality or People
concerned;
(b) When the Federal Government has organized a referendum which must
take place within three years from the time it received the concerned council’s
decision for secession;
(c) When the demand for secession is supported by majority vote in the
referendum;
(d) When the Federal Government will have transferred its powers to the
council of the Nation, Nationality or People who has voted to secede; and
(e) When the division of assets is effected in a manner prescribed by law.
5. A "Nation, Nationality or People" for the purpose of this Constitution , is a
group of people who have or share large measure of a common culture or
similar customs, mutual intelligibility of language, belief in a common or
related identities, a common psychological make-up, and who inhabit an
identifiable, predominantly contiguous territory.
