"The Family Members" means a) any spouse of the recognized refugee or asylum-seeker; b) any unmarried child of the recognized refugee or asylum-seeker under the age of eighteen years; or c) any person the Agency may consider, upon assessment, as member of a family taking into account the meaning of family in the laws of their country of origin and existence of dependency among them.

“Identification document” mean documents, issued by the Agency, to recognized refugees and asylum-seekers, including identity paper, travel document, pass permit, proof of registration, birth certificate or similar documents that attest as to the identity of the bearer.

“Local Integration” means a process by which individual refugee or groups of refugees who have lived in Ethiopia for a protracted period are provided, up on their request, with permanent residence permit to facilitate their broader integration with Ethiopian nationals until they fully attain durable solutions for their problems.

This Proclamation shall be applied without discrimination as to race, religion, Nationality, membership of a particular social group, political opinion or other similar grounds.

1/ Any person shall be considered as a refugee where:
a) owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion he is outside his country of nationality and is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling, to avail himself of the protection of that country;
b) not having a nationality and being outside the country of his former habitual residence, he is unable, or owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, he is unwilling to return to it; or
c) owing to external aggression, occupation, foreign domination or events seriously disturbing public order in either part or the whole of his country of origin or nationality, he is compelled to leave his place of habitual residence in order to seek refuge in another place outside his country of origin or nationality.
2/ In the case of a person who has more than one nationality, a person shall not be deemed to be lacking the protection of the country of which he is a national if, without any valid reason based on well-founded fear, he has not availed himself of the protection of one of the countries of which he is a national.

A person shall be considered as a refugee where the conditions stipulated under Sub Article (1)(a), (b) or (c) of Article 5 of this Proclamation have taken place after he has left the country of his nationality or habitual residence.

Notwithstanding the provisions of Article 5 and 6 of this Proclamation a person shall not be considered as a refugee if there are serious reasons for considering that:
1/ he has committed a crime against peace, a war crime, or a crime against humanity, as defined in the international instrument drawn up to make provision in respect of such crimes;
2/ he has committed a serious, non-political crime prior to his entry into Ethiopia as a refugee; or
3/ he has been guilty of acts contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations or the African Union as embodied in their respective Charters.

1/ The Agency may:
a) cancel the refugee status of a person, if he should not have been considered to be a refugee because the inclusion criteria provided by Article 5 of the Proclamation was not met at the time of the initial decision;
b) cancel the refugee status of a person, if he should not have been considered to be a refugee because the exclusion criteria provided under Article 7 of the Proclamation had not been applied at the time of the initial decision;
2/ The Agency may revoke the refugee status of a person recognized in Ethiopia if it is established that, after he is granted refugee status, the exclusion criteria provided by Article 7(1) or (3) of the Proclamation applies to the person.
3/ The Agency shall give the person, whose refugee status is cancelled or revoked, a prior written notification and an opportunity to explain about the issue.
4/ The decision to cancel or revoke refugee status by the Agency shall also apply to family members of the person with respect to whom the decision has been made; provided, however, that the family member affected by the decision may submit his individual application for refugee status in accordance with this Proclamation.
5/ Any person aggrieved by the decision of the Agency made in accordance with this article may appeal within sixty days of receiving written notification of the decision to the Appeal Hearing Council established in accordance with this Proclamation.
6/ Notwithstanding sub-Article (5) of this Article, the Appeal Hearing Council may hear an appeal filed after the expiry of sixty days if the appellant has justifiable cause for having filed a late appeal.

The decision to cancel or revoke refugee status by the Agency shall also apply to family members of the person with respect to whom the decision has been made; provided, however, that the family member affected by the decision has a right to submit his individual application for refugee status in accordance with this Proclamation

1/ Any person shall cease to be considered as refugee if:
a) he has voluntarily re-availed himself of the protection of the country of his nationality;
b) having lost his nationality, he has voluntarily re-acquired it;
c) he has voluntarily re-established himself in the country which he left or outside of which he remained owing to fear of persecution;
d) he has acquired the nationality of Ethiopia, or that of another country and enjoys the protection of his new country of nationality; or
e) he can no longer, because the circumstances in connection with which he was recognized as a refugee have ceased to exist, continue to refuse to avail himself of the protection of the country of his nationality; or if he has lost his nationality or has no nationality an dis able to return to is country of former habitual residence but continue to refuse to do so.
2/ The provision of Sub-article (1) (e ) of this Article shall not apply, however, to a refugee who is able to invoke compelling reasons arising out of previous persecution as set out in Article 5 of this Proclamation, for refusing to avail himself of the protection of the country of his nationality or country of his former habitual residence.
3/ Any person aggrieved by the decision of the Agency made in accordance with this Article may appeal within sixty days of receiving written notification of the decision to the Appeal Hearing Council established in accordance with this Proclamation.
4/ Notwithstanding the provision of sub-article (3) of this Article, the Appeal Hearing Council may hear an appeal filed after the expiry of sixty days if the appellant has justifiable cause for having filed a late appeal.