Description

Article 55(14) of the FDRE Constitution obliges the House of Peoples Representatives to establish a Human Rights Commission and determine by law its powers and functions. Accordingly, the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission (EHRC) is established to play a major role in enforcing the rights and freedoms enshrined in the FDRE Constitution. The establishment Proclamation states that the Commission is established in order to educate the public to be aware of human rights, to see that human rights are protected, respected and fully enforced as well as to have the necessary measure taken where they are found to have been violated. The EHRC has the duty to ensure that human rights provided for under the FDRE Constitution are respected by all citizens, organs of the state, political organizations and other associations as well as by their respective officials and to ensure that laws, regulations and directives as well as government decisions and orders do not contravene the human rights guaranteed by the Constitution. Hence, the EHRC would serve an important role in safeguarding and protecting the right of refugees.