The Implication Of The Hate Speech Law On Freedom Of Expression In Ethiopia

Freedom of expression is an important right protected under international and regional human right laws. Ethiopia also recognized the right to freedom of expression by ratifying the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) in 1993. It also recognizes the right to freedom of expression under its constitution of 1995. However, these international human rights instruments do not only recognize the right to freedom of expression, but also actually require state parties to restrict certain speech on the ground that it undermines the right of others to equality and non-discrimination. Hate speech is top of these exceptional restrictions and it is become a problem of democratic values, peace, social-stability, displacement, crime against humanity and even Genocide. In order to tackle this problem the government of Ethiopia has adopted a hate speech law. However, this hate speech law, contain provisions that may adversely affect the enjoyment of the right to freedom of expression, including vague definition of ‘hate speech’, disproportionate criminal punishments and problematic censorship delegation of social-media service providers. This thesis is seek to assess the implication of this hate speech law on freedom of expression in Ethiopia, in light of international and regional human right laws.

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