FDRE LEGAL PORTAL

Law in Ethiopia

Law making in Ethiopia is exercised at three levels. At a primary level, it is made by the parliament known in Ethiopia as the Ethiopian House of People’s Representatives (HPR). The laws that the HPR enacts are known as Proclamations. At secondary and tertiary levels, laws are made by the various organs of government through delegation. The chief law maker at the secondary level is the Council of Ministers (CoM). Laws enacted by CoM are known as “Regulations”. Proclamations and Regulations are required to be published and come out as laws in the form of a special gazette known as the Negarit Gazette. At a tertiary level, there is a huge body of rules continually enacted by various government organs justified by their day to day operational needs. These rules come in various nomenclatures such as directives, circulars, notices, guidelines, etc. Although the tertiary level of rules has significant impact on citizens’ daily lives as they interface with government institutions, they are, for the most part, not published and are inaccessible. This is gradually changing for the better because of the government’s continuous effort to ensure access to information to the public and the development of information technology but the pace of change is far from the desired level.