3.1.

Aspects/dimensions of Citizenship
The concept of citizenship is composed of three main elements or dimensions. The first is
citizenship as legal status, defined by civil, political and social rights. Here, the citizen is the
legal person free to act according to the law and having the right to claim the law's protection. It
need not mean that the citizen takes part in the law's formulation, nor does it require that rights
be uniform between citizens. The second considers citizens specifically as political agents,
actively participating in a society's political institutions. The third refers to citizenship as
membership in a political community that furnishes a distinct source of identity.

The scope and focuses of civics and ethics-citizenship education varies from
countries to countries.

In Ethiopian context civics and Ethics is a multidisciplinary field of study that

primarily deals with the duties, rights and expected roles of citizens and the
state in the social, economical, political and cultural affairs of the country. Its
focus is not limited to the legal rights and duties of citizens, but also extends to the
moral rights and duties of citizens and the state.

Accordingly one can identify at least five categories of citizenship in the Federal
Democratic Republic Ethiopia Constitution: political citizenship, economic and
developmental citizenship, social citizenship, cultural citizenship,
environmental citizenship.

1. Cultural citizenship implies the rights and responsibilities established

among cultural groups and individuals and state. One of the cultural rights,
for instance is related to the equality of language. In this regard, Article 5
proclaimed that all languages shall enjoy equal state recognition.
 As indicated in Article 41(9) the state has the responsibility to protect and
preserve historical, cultural legacies, and to contribute to the promotion of the
arts and sports.

2. Political citizenship involves the reciprocal relations ship of rights and

duties which are established among citizens and between citizens and states
with regard to the political affairs or domains of the country.

In this regard, for instance, Article 38 stipulated that every citizen has the
right to vote and to be elected. Here the obligation of the state is to ensure
peace and order, and thus the state is not expected to intervene in the election
process.

3. Another dimension of citizenship is social citizenship. The whole notion of

economic and social citizenship has been captured by the following provisions
as revealed in Article 41 from sub articles one to eight.
1. Every Ethiopian has the right to engage freely in economic activities and to pursue

a livelihood of his choice anywhere within the national territory.

2. Every Ethiopian has the right to choose his or her means of livelihood, occupation

and profession.
3. Every Ethiopian national has the right to equal access to publicly funded social

services.
4. The state has the obligation to allocate ever increasing resources to provide to

public health, education and other social services.

5. The state shall, within available means, allocate resources to provide rehabilitation

and assistance to the physically and mentally disabled, aged, and to children who
 are left with out parents or guardians.
6. The state shall pursue policies which aim to expand job opportunities for the

unemployed and the poor and shall accordingly undertake programs and public
works and projects.

4. Another important dimension of citizenship is developmental citizenship.

This notion of citizenship has been reflected in Article 43 of the constitution. The
following are the main provisions:
1. The people of Ethiopia as a whole, and each Nation, Nationalities and People in

Ethiopia have the right to improved living standards and to sustainable

development.
2. Nationals (citizens) have the right to participate in the national development and, in

particular, to be consulted with respect to policies and projects affecting their

community.
3. All international agreements and relations concluded, established….shall protect

and ensure Ethiopia’s right to sustainable development.

4. The basic aim of development activities shall be to enhance the capacity of citizens

for development and to meet their basic needs.

5. The Last, but not the least category of citizenship is what is

referred as environmental citizenship. Article 44 of the constitutions
provides that:
1. All persons have the right to a clean and healthy environment
2. All persons who have been displaced or whose livelihoods have been
adversely affected as result of state programme have the right to
compensation, including relocation with adequate state assistance.
 As indicated in sub article one, citizens have rights to live in a healthy
environment.

3.2. Philosphical discourse on Citizenship: Liberal,

Republican & communitarian
The liberal tradition, which developed from the 17th century onwards, understands citizenship
primarily as a legal status: political liberty is important as a means to protecting individual
freedoms from interference by other individuals or the authorities themselves. But citizens
exercise these freedoms primarily in the world of private associations and attachments,
rather than in the political domain.

Liberal citizenship conceptualization, based on individual freedom and equality

and setting a bundle of individual rights against the state, failed to accommodate
cultural pluralism raised in the late twentieth century

The key principle of the Republican model is civic self-rule, embodied in classical institutions
and practices like the rotation of offices, underpinning Aristotle's characterization of the
citizen as one capable of ruling and being ruled in turn. Citizens are, first and foremost,
“those who share in the holding of office”. Civic self-rule is also at the heart of Rousseau's
project in the Contrat Social: it is their co-authoring of the laws via the general will that
makes citizens free and laws legitimate. Active participation in processes of deliberation and
decision-making ensures that individuals are citizens, not subjects. In essence, the republican
model emphasizes the second dimension of citizenship, that of political agency.

Communitarian- opposes the notion that society is a mere collection of independent

individual, for them, society / state is more than a collections of individuals (society / state is a
whole where individual are a part). As to the proponets of this perspective, individual depend
on a society/ state for survival and for pursuing decent way of life, hence group or state right has
priority over individuals rights.

Citizen and Citizenship

A citizen is a person who has rights and privileges in a country and who is also expected to
render services and overcome duties expected from him/her. The person could be a native of
a certain country or a person who was born elsewhere but naturalized to a certain country.

A citizen is an individual who is a legally recognized member of a state. Citizenship is the

relationship that is legally established between the state and an individual. It is the totality of
rulers that could help a citizen get or loss citizenship of a state.

Citizenship creates bond between the individual and the state of a certain country. This by
implication makes the individuals identified as a member of a state. This could then allow the
member citizens to claim for protection against any form of attack from internal and external
forces. Finally, citizenship makes individuals subordinate to the state.

Nationals and citizens have slight difference in that a national is a person who is citizen by
birth in the country referred. But citizen could be a person who is either naturalized or
born in the country referred. Thus we can say a national is a citizen born in a specific country
but a citizen may not be a national. On the other hand, there is also a difference between citizen
and nationality. Nationality is commonly referred to a persons ethnic origin. But citizenship
denotes the tie or relation of individuality and is used to show how membership in a certain
nation is established.
 The Origin of the Concept

In ancient Greece citizen means a person who lives in a town or city. This suggests having
the freedom and membership in political administration. In ancient states people and state
had a weak relationship. The people needed little protection from the state and the state gained
little from the people. But as society developed and the population increased people needed more
protection from the state and this consolidated the relation between the state and people. This
link between the people and the state is called citizenship.

3.3. Modes/Ways of acquiring citizenship

A person acquires citizenship of a state in different ways. Citizenship could be acquired by

birth or through naturalization. To get citizenship by naturalization, the person is expected to
fulfill the social, political and legal requirements of the country. With respect to the rights and
duties of citizens both citizens by birth and naturalized citizens have the same status. However,
in some instances there may be slight differences example the right to elect and be elected.

Citizenship by birth

a. Jus Soli (the law (right) of the soil). According to this law all persons that are born with in the
territory of that state is granted the right to get citizenship. However, this rule does not include
children born to foreign diplomats who represent the country they came from. Thus this rule does
not consider the origin of the parents of the child. If a child is born within the soil of that state
he/she will be granted citizenship. Most of the developed states accept Jus Soli.
b. Jus Sanguinis (law (right) of the blood. Jus Sanguinis can be divided into Jus Sanguinis paterni
(father) and Jus Sanguinis Materni (mother). This mode of acquiring citizenship is very common
in the developing countries. Here a child can claim citizenship of his/her parents.
Citizenship by Naturalization

Naturalization is a process of obtaining citizenship if the person fulfils the political, legal and
 social matters which the host country expects to be accomplished. Naturalization is a process
by which a state confers its citizenship on an individual who is originally not its citizen as a
result of some voluntary acts and intentions of the individual.

There are certain factors that compel a person to change his/her citizenship.
1. When a person living in a certain territory becomes transferred into a territory of another
country. This imply that if the territory in which a person lives is taken by another country, the
people living in the old territory will be forced to change their citizenship to the state which has
newly taken up the territory. This could happen through
● annexation by force – merger of one state with another state
● cessation
● purchase arrangements made by two countries
2. Marriage to a foreigner. Until 1930, a woman who married a foreigner was forced to loose her
own citizenship and get citizenship of her husband’s country.
3. When the government of a country freely grants citizenship to foreigners living in the
country or abroad example DV that is Diversified Immigrant Visa given by the U.S.A to the
nationals of other countries across the world.
4. Emigration – when a person emigrates due to political, social or economic reason, he/she asks
for citizenship of the country where he/she were emigrated citizenship may also be obtained in
the following ways as well.
- Legitmation:- This is citizenship by recognition. An illegimate child has
the right to get citizenship of his biological or care taker father after
legitimation. Such process is usually attributed to a citizen of multiple
citizenship.
- Option – a person of multiple citizenships has a possibility to choose
his/her citizenship
- Acquisition of Domicile – This is a way of getting citizenship status when
the person is able to get permanent residence.
- Appointment as government official. – This is citizenship by job. Some
countries grant citizenship to a person (s) who is/are assigned to work
with in their country.
 Dual citizenship (mixed system)

A person sometimes may have double citizenship due to the existence of different laws of
citizenship. A person may have one citizenship because of his birth place (Jus Soli) and
another citizenship because of his/her parents citizenship by blood (Jus Sanguinis) some
people have dual citizenship as a result of naturalization in foreign state and if the state of
the state of the individual refuse to allow the individual to go abroad the situation is called
indelible which means that can not be removed. This is to show that the first citizenship can
not be lost due to the absence of consent on the part of the applicant’s country.

But this situation could result in some problems like – tax payment, military national service.
Citizenship to children, to get protection from the government of the two countries because none
of the states.

Statelessness
Statelessness is a condition in which a person fails to have nationality or citizenship. There
are two types of statelessness that is defacto and dejure statelessness
- Defacto statelessness refers to persons who have nationality but do not get protection from their
state when they are out of their country. These are people who are displaced from their home
country for political, economic or social reasons and sheltered in another country.
- Dejure statelessness – Such kind of statelessness is caused when people are made to loose their
citizenship by their own government for different reasons.
Example Russia from those who were against the revolution of 1917 and Hitler
from the Jews

Modes of loosing citizenship

1. Renunciation (Expatriation). The United Nations Declaration of Human Rights of 1948 which
has a preamble and 30 articles provides in its article 15 sub article citizenship the right to the
individual to renounce his/her citizenship and seek citizenship of some other state
according to his/her choice
2. Deprivation – a person who is found guilty of committing serious crimes against the state may
 be deprived of his/her citizenship. Some of the crimes could be
- to make access national secrets to alien country
- to collaborate with the enemy force in time of war
- to carry out diplomatic, economic, political and military intelligence to another state within
his/her state.
3. Substitution – citizenship may be lost when a person’s original citizenship is substituted by
another state, which he acquires through naturalization on the other side, this may also
happen when a particular territory is annexed by another state. In such cases the citizenship of
the conquered people will be replaced by the citizenship of the subjugator.
4. Lapse – citizenship may be lost if the person stays outside of his/her country for a long and
continues period – example, if an Indian citizen stays out of India continuously for more than
seven years, the person will loose his/her Indian citizenship by the principle of lapse.

Rights and Responsibilities of Citizens

i. Rights
- Getting protection that is to get his/her life and property protected by the state
- Getting the necessary social services that is having access to health, education, water, electricity,
housing and other facilities
- Right to work in his/her own country (facilitate the working situations)
- Right to elect and be elected
ii. Responsibilities
- Take part in the political, economic and social activities
- Respect the rights of other people
- Protect the country from any kind of threat or attack
- Bear duties in times of advertise
- Respect the laws and rules that govern the country
- Preserve historic and cultural heritages of the country
- Pay taxes
- Accept and appreciate the views, beliefs and arguments of other people (open mindedness)
- Be good citizen free from addition of any kind
- Follow up what the government is doing or intends to do
 The following are requirements to get Ethiopian citizenship by naturalization according to
the Ethiopian law of citizenship of 1931
- One who reaches the age of maturity (legal age)
- One who stayed in Ethiopia at least for five years
- One who is not dependent
- One who speaks and writes the Amharic language
- One who is not accused of crime or other related illegal maters and who presents human
witnesses

Constitution of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia (1995)

Article 6
Nationality

1. Any person of either sex shall be an Ethiopian national where both or either
parent is Ethiopian.
2. Foreign nationals may acquire Ethiopian nationality.
3. Particulars relating to nationality shall be determined by law.

Article 33
Rights of Nationality

1. No Ethiopian national shall be deprived of his or her Ethiopian nationality

against his or her will. Marriage of an Ethiopian national of either sex to a foreign
national shall not annul his or her Ethiopian nationality.
2. Every Ethiopian national has the right to the enjoyment of all rights, protection
and benefits derived from Ethiopian nationality as prescribed by law.
3. Any national has the right to change his Ethiopian nationality.
4. Ethiopian nationality may be conferred upon foreigners in accordance with law
enacted and procedures established consistent with international agreements
ratified by Ethiopia.

Major rights & Responsibilities of Citizens

Chapter three

Fundamental Rights & Freedom – from Article 13-art.44 deliberates on individual

& group rights (see the FDRE constitution of 1995)