The Anglo-Ethiopian Society
Conference - Ethiopia: Identity Politics, Human Rights and Democratization
Centre for the Study of Human Rights, LSE
From Friday 8th May 2015 to Saturday 9th May 2015
This free conference has been organised by the Centre of Human Rights at the London School of Economics and is being held in the Alumni Theatre, New Academic Building, Lincoln's Inn Fields. There are a limited number of places available for participants who are not presenting, which will be allocated, via advance booking, on a first come first served basis. Prospective attendees should email to register to attend. If you have a place you will be notified by email.
2014 marked the 20th anniversary of the adoption of the Ethiopian Constitution and the 40th Anniversary of the 1974 Revolution. These are two watershed moments that radically re-oriented Ethiopian politics and redefined the form and structure of the Ethiopian state. Though the constitution is by no means a continuation of the Revolution, the latter has provided the ideological basis and the philosophical paradigm for the former. Twenty years after the Revolution, the constitution proclaimed the coming into being of a new political community 'founded on the rule of law, capable of ensuring a lasting peace, [and] guaranteeing a democratic order.' It promised a radical break with the ills of the past and grounded the foundation of the new state in the liberal ideas of human rights and democracy. A fiercely centralized state is reconstituted as federal. Sovereignty is both devolved and divided and federating units granted the unprecedented authority to determine their political, economic, and cultural status. However, these radical guarantees are still being deferred and democracy is yet to come.
The conference will explore the most recurring theoretical and empirical issues that have dominated the Ethiopian political landscape from a variety of disciplinary perspectives. A programme of the lectures and discussions can be found in the Provisional Agenda (PDF).
Further information can be obtained from the conference website.