Access and Benefit Sharing Effectiveness: International Environmental Law Implementation at the Domestic Ethiopian Level

Abstract

Access and Benefit Sharing (ABS) in international environmental laws (mainly, but not limited to, biodiversity) converges with human rights instruments on indigenous people. State parties should take legislative, administrative, and practical measures to realize the ABS regimes. This article argues that there are normative and practical gaps including confusing ABS with compensation in Ethiopian domestic laws and actual implementation, while ABS itself is not well understood. The article finally recommends legal amendments and policymakers' political move to comply with the country's international duty.

Effectiveness of Chemical- and Hazardous-Waste-Based MEAs in Sustaining Life and Land: Analysis of Implementing Legislations and Practice in Ethiopia

“…They suffered exclusion, animal and human health problems from the effluents, the loss of their land's productivity, and dispossession, among other issues that led them to rebel against the mining industry [5]. However, irrespective of their economic status, international environmental law and human rights laws oblige states to at least balance their national economic interests with two other interests: the people's economic benefits on the one hand and the protection of the environment and human health on the other [11]. As the theme of this paper is limited to the latter, this section discusses the CHW governance trends of the MIDROC gold mine, which operates both in open pits and underground pits.…”

“…As discussed in another document, these pollution issues and communal land dispossession, which increased the goldmine area at the expense of the indigenous people's interests, worsened the grievances of the indigenous people against the state and the MIDROC [11]. In 1997, MIDROC received the government-operated Laga-Dambi goldmine concession for 20 years [5].…”