Abstract Ethiopia is a nation of ethnic diversity. It is mainly an agricultural society. Now a federation, the country was previously a unitary and centralized state. Historically, unlike many African states, Ethiopia was never colonized but was under imperial rule until 1974. The subsequent military rule was short-lived, and was overthrown by the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) in May 1991. The process of transition from a unitary to a federal system took place in two phases. The first phase (devolution) occurred during a 1991-1995 transition period, and the second phase began in 1995 (adoption of federal constitution). The most significant development in the initial transition was the adoption of the Transitional Period Charter. The charter proclaimed fundamental human rights and guaranteed the right of each individual, each nation and each ethnic community in Ethiopia to self-determination. It also established two parallel systems of government, the central government and the regional/ national self-governments. However, the central government and the selfgoverning regional units could not immediately establish a federal political system as there was a lack of constitutional legitimacy, since the regional self-governments were, at that stage, considered subordinate to the central government. But in the second stage of the devolution process, the new constitution was adopted in 1995, and it provided the necessary political stability to Ethiopia’s ethnic communities for them to share political power and exercise self-rule. Thus, after a long period of political evolution and restructuring, Ethiopia has now built a federal political system that is organized on the basis of the recognition and institutionalization of the right of ethno-territorial communities to self-determination, ensuring the equality and unity of its diverse ethnic communities.
Keywords: central; community; constitution; ethnic; federal; Ethiopia; governance; human rights; nation; region; transition.