Constitutions of Ethiopia
The Constitutions of Ethiopia are four adopted 1931-1995 constitutions of Ethiopia and the constitutions of the various regions of the country.
Historical constitutions
The first constitution of Ethiopia was the constitution of the Empire Abyssinia from 1931 . It was put into effect in July 1931 on the initiative of Emperor Haile Selassie and only insignificantly restricted the power of the ruler. All three powers - executive , legislative and judicial - were subordinate to the emperor. This constitution was based on the Meiji constitution of the Japanese Empire .
In 1955 a new constitution, the constitution of the Ethiopian Empire from 1955 , was put into force by Haile Selassie . It did little to democratize the country, accelerated the process of centralization and contained some provisions to protect human rights .
A proposed revision of the 1955 constitution was published in 1974, but had no legal status and was soon forgotten in the turmoil of the military coup of that year under Mengistu Haile Mariam .
After a long period of communist Derg - military dictatorship in 1987 was the Constitution of the People's Democratic Republic of Ethiopia enacted, the claim to power, which was founded in 1984 Socialist Workers' Party of Ethiopia manifested and the country formally in a People's Republic transformed.
Today's constitutions
After the overthrow of the military government and the seizure of power by the Revolutionary Democratic Front of the Ethiopian Peoples , a coalition of parties led by the People's Liberation Front of Tigray , Ethiopia initially became a centralized republic in 1991. In 1995 the federalist Ethiopian constitution , which is still in force today, was enacted, which for the first time in the history of Ethiopia promised all major ethnic groups of the country participation in political power and gave the country the name of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia .
Each of the nine regions has since had its own constitution. The Ethiopian Constitutional Council monitors compliance .