Paper short abstract:

This paper analyses the current developments and challenges of the Ethiopian legal framework on refugees’ right to work which have not yet been adequately investigated. It draws on legal analysis and empirical socio-legal research among refugees and stakeholders in Ethiopia.

Paper long abstract:

Ethiopia has a long history of hosting refugees who are fleeing chronic conflict or drought in neighboring countries. It has signed the UN and OAU refugee conventions, demonstrating its determination to participate in global efforts to protect refugees. To domesticate the country’s international commitments, a new refugee law was adopted in 2019, granting a wide-ranging set of additional rights to refugees compared to previous laws.

This paper analyses the current developments and challenges of the Ethiopian legal framework on the refugees’ right to work which have not yet been adequately investigated. It draws on legal analysis as well as empirical socio-legal research among refugees and key stakeholders in Ethiopia by employing the users’ perspective approach. Its innovative approach to analyzing refugee law from a private law perspective will be an added value to research on refugee law. The investigation demonstrates that Ethiopian refugee law is mainly in line with the international and regional refugee conventions; but that there are other domestic laws, for instance in the realm of private law, that contradict with the protection of the right to work intended by the refugee law framework. Moreover, there are gaps in the implementation of the laws on the ground. The paper recommends more coherence among the different laws of the country to protect refugees’ right to work, and points to the need of adopting a broader, more integrated approach – beyond the narrow focus on refugee law – to assess the legal and actual protection of refugees’ right to work.