PROSCRIPTION OF GROUPS OR ORGANIZATIONS AS A TERRORIST UNDER ETHIOPIAN TERRORISM LAW; A COMPARATIVE LEGAL STUDY

Abstract

The Ethiopian government has implemented a comprehensive legal framework to combat terrorism, including provisions for proscription of organizations or groups as terrorist entities which involves designating it as a terrorist organization, thereby making its activities illegal and subject to criminal penalties. This comparative legal study examined the proscription of organizations as terrorists under the Ethiopian terrorism law through comparative analysis. Comparative jurisdictions may differ in the extent to which they provide procedural fairness, judicial review, or mechanisms for organizations to challenge their designation as terrorists. Additionally, the analysis explores the implications of proscribing organizations as terrorists on freedom of association and freedom of expression. Accordingly, laws of U.S., Australia, and Nigeria are considered for comparison. Selection of these nations as a sample is because of universal nature of terrorism crime and as member states to UN, they reached an agreement to combat it. Additionally, they enacted laws on proscription of organizations as a terrorist and practiced it. To achieve the intended objectives the thesis employed qualitative method as an approach. After the collected primary and secondary data analysis, the study found that the Ethiopian proscription of organization as a terrorist law seeks amendment in terms of providing clear grounds to proscribe, the procedural safeguards of the organization proscribing, accountability and transparency of the proscribing body and guarantying of human rights of individual associated with the organizations.