Monday, May 7, 2007

Constitutional Rights and Constitutional Wrongs:

Alemayehu G. Mariam
Thank you for inviting me to speak at the Ethiopia Roundtable Forum of the Canadian
Peacebuilding Coordinating Committee (CPCC) in Ottawa, Canada.

The CPCC network, which is made up of about 75 Canadian organizations and individual members
involved in peacebuilding and conflict prevention activities, is engaged in enabling dialogue on peace
and conflict issues and in articulating peacebuilding policy and program approaches.
Let me also thank the Solidarity Committee for Ethiopian Political Prisoners (SOCEPP) of Canada
for its assistance in organizing this Roundtable Forum. Please be assured that all of us engaged in the
defense and advancement of the cause of democracy, freedom and human rights fully support your
efforts to obtain the release of all political prisoners in Ethiopia.
Though I am unable to join you in person, I thank you all for giving me the opportunity to comment
on the issue of “justice reform” in Ethiopia.
I shall focus my remarks narrowly on individual rights under the “Constitution of the Federal
Republic of Ethiopia.”
Ethiopia, Utopia?

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