Abstract: Ethiopia has adopted many international human rights instruments including those dealing with the rights of children. Beside this, the country’s constitution has incorporated the rights of child in its provisions. The constitution also establishes that international human rights instruments adopted by the government are part and parcel of the law of the land in such a way that they should be enforced just as other domestic laws and policies. Moroecver, it is stipulated under the constitution that its human rights provsions are to be interpreted in line with international human rights standards including the UDHR.
Despite the constitiutional provsions and adoption of several international human rights instruments, the practice of child marriage is yet highly prevalent in Ethiopia. And this has to do with the culture of the society, the weak normative and institutional framework for the eforcement of human rights of children, and the government’s failure to take the practice of child marriage as a serious human rights issue.
This paper argues that the practice of child marriage should be considered as an expression of ‘’communal cultural relativism’’, in resistance to the universality of human rights, and a serious human rights problem that need to be addressed through a human rights-based approach by recognizing that the principle of the universality of human rights doesn’t allow the persistence of harmful cultural practices under the guise of societal culture and values, and that the government has the obligation to change and transform cultures and traditions that are affront to the rights and dignities of children.
Keywords: Human Rights, Ethiopian Constitution, Child Marriage, Universality of Human Rights, Cultural Relativism, Government Obligation, Human Rights-based Approach.
Title: On Addressing the Practice of Child Marriage through Universal Human Rights: Making a Case from Ethiopian Perspectives
Author: Dessalegn Adera
International Journal of Social Science and Humanities Research
ISSN 2348-3156 (Print), ISSN 2348-3164 (online)
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