A/HRC/4/9/Add.3 page 6 I. RECOGNITION OF MINORITIES IN ETHIOPIA 5. According to the Parliament of Ethiopia: “Ethiopia is a land of enormous ethnic diversity, with people of Semitic, Cushitic, Nilotic and Omotic stock. There are more than 80 ethnic groups and as many languages. In terms of religion, Christians and Muslims make up approximately 80 per cent of the population (Christians being slightly more preponderant), the remaining 20 per cent animists and others. Under the Constitution of 1995, religious rights, and the cultural and political rights of all ethnic groups are guaranteed.” 6. Government census statistics from 1994 reveal that the Amhara and Oromo ethnic groups each comprise about 30 per cent of the population, while the Somali and Tigrayan ethnic groups each comprise circa 6 per cent. Numerous other groups make up the remainder of the Ethiopian population of over 70 million, with only the Afar, the Gedeo, the Gurage, the Hadiya, the Keffa, the Sidama, and the Wolaita officially constituting more than 1 per cent of the overall population. The populations of some of the smallest ethnic groups can be counted in the hundreds and research is still required to fully document all communities. Some have estimated that the true number of ethnic groups, including subgroups and “caste-groups” is far higher. 7. The Constitution recognizes all distinct ethnic groups as sovereign “nations, nationalities and peoples” defined as: “a group of people who have or share a large measure of a common culture or similar customs, mutual intelligibility of language, belief in a common or related identity, a common psychological make-up, and who inhabit an identifiable, predominantly contiguous territory”. The Constitution does not articulate a distinction between the three categories or explicitly recognize national, ethnic, religious and linguistic minority or indigenous status. 8. In contrast to the policies of previous Governments, all languages and cultures are given equal recognition under the Constitution, and each national group has the right to develop and promote its own culture and preserve its own history (art. 39, para. 2). Each “nation” has an opportunity to govern within a defined territory. Each state government may promulgate its own regional constitution and laws, as long as these are consistent with the federal Constitution, declare its own official and working languages, and organize life within its territory in accordance with local customs and traditions. 9. Research demonstrates a high degree of ethnic mixing, interaction and geographical mobility amongst Ethiopia’s ethnic groups, which have variously been voluntary (economic migration to other regions, inter-marriage between communities), or involuntary (including forced relocation or displacement due to conflict). This has resulted in regions in which numerous ethnic groups are present, often in significant numbers. Complex identity issues were demonstrated by a number of people who complained that the Government now requires everyone, for the purpose of national identity cards, to state a single ethnic status rather than identify themselves as of mixed ethnic origin, or as Ethiopian. In response, the Government states that identity remains a self-definitional exercise. II. LEGAL AND POLITICAL CONTEXT 10. The current Government, the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) took office in May 1991 following a protracted war against the Provisional Military