Recent experiences in South Africa and Ethiopia to accommodate cultural diversity: a regained interest in the right of self-determination

Abstract

This article examines the right to self-determination and the various constitutional mechanisms that can be used to accommodate cultural diversity. Using the South African and Ethiopian constitutions as case-studies, it concludes that it is possible to respect the principle of equality and the right to identity of "population groups" in a way which will pre-empt calls for external self-determination, and it suggests that the mechanisms used in these two countries may serve as a model elsewhere in Africa and beyond.