Self-determination as a sensitive content of worldâ€™s legal and political issue passed throughrnmany ups and down to get the current international customary law status. It was contextualizedrnas per the dynamic nature of world political and legal realities. Accordingly in the time ofrncolonialism, it was considered as an apparatus of restoring independence whereas after the endrnof colonialism the notion of self- determination become the issue of all ethnic groups all over thernworld, which are snatched their political, economic and cultural rights by the clear tyrant naturernof governments or swallowed by the majority rule of democracy. Ethiopia is a good example ofrntrying to rule different ethnic groups in a single ruling system and by a single cultural orientedrnideology. Like other countries experiences such efforts of Ethiopia did not compromise therndiversity nature of the country and it becomes that self-determination is the way out of suchrncrisis. But due to the deeply divided nature of the peoples there is still a problem ofrnmainstreaming of the elements of self-determination. Beyond being part of the merernadministrative structure of government, local governments should be the apparatus ofrnmainstreaming self-determination since a single ethnic group occupy a local government. Thisrnpaper attempts to examine whether the current federal structure of Ethiopia does enable tornaccess the elements of self-determination by all nations, nationalities and peoples or not. It isrnalso tried to show the importance of local governments in the equally and justly accessing andrntruly exercising the right of self-determination. To show such facts the Sidama zone legal andrninstitutional framework is examined