Welcome to the Center for Human Rights

The Centre for Human Rights (formerly known as the Institute of Human Rights) was established in October 2008 as part of the University’s shift from a primarily undergraduate to a research-oriented graduate university. The Centre for Human Rights (CHR) has the mission of advancing the rule of law, democratic governance, and human rights in Ethiopia through teaching, research, and community services. It currently operates under the School of Governance Studies, recently established by the University to serve as an umbrella institution for the CHR, the Institute of Peace and Security Studies and the Institute of Federal Studies.

The CHR is housed in the Kifle Wodajo Memorial Center for Peace, Human Rights, and Democracy which is located in the FBE campus of Addis Ababa University.

  Currently, the Center’s major programs include:

• Master of Arts in Human Rights (MA):- launched with the aim of providing quality and rigorous training in human rights as a subject of multidisciplinary inquiry in terms of content, mode of delivery and student background. Courses administered relate to international/national laws of human rights, philosophical foundations of human rights, politics of human rights, economics of human rights, and culture and human rights, federalism and human Rights, transitional justice and human rights, and Africa and human rights. The program’s students come from diverse backgrounds including higher learning institutions, national human rights institutions, civil society organizations, the media, courts and law enforcement organs.
• Legal Advice and Information Project: - a community service program implemented through partnership between the CHR and Active Learning Centre, University of Glasgow, with the financial assistance from Department for International Development (DFID). The CHR considers the project as its flagship community service and project partners are currently working hard to ensure its sustainability.  As part of efforts to ensure continuity, the CHR has approached the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission and obtained assistance from the EHRC for expansion of the CHR’s legal aid services.
• Research and Publications: - As part of Research and Publications program, the CHR is going to launch the Ethiopian Journal of Human Rights(EJHR) that will publish research articles and writings concerning human rights from the perspectives of various disciplines. The CHR is also planning to author and publish books on human rights in the national context (for example, textbooks and thematic publications) for use in the CHR’s teaching and community services programs, in various research and teaching institutions nationwide, and in the operations of other stakeholders such as national human rights organs. Currently, the CHR has secured modest fund from the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission to commence publication of the EJHR. The CHR welcomes support in the form of skills and finance to ensure the quality and sustainability of its publications.
• Joint Ph.D. in Peace, Federalism, and Human Rights: the program is designed to overcome the acute shortage of teaching and research expertise at postgraduate levels both at the AAU and nationwide in the fields of human rights, peace and federalism. Hence the program is principally intended to enhance the capacity of higher educational and research institutions. The program is a collaborative undertaking between the CHR, the Institute of Peace and Security Studies, and the Institute of Federal Studies. Objectives of the program, as stated in the curriculum, include:
  • Producing researchers and educators in the three interrelated areas of peace, federalism and human rights; and
  • Promoting interdisciplinary research on issues of peace, federalism and human rights.

News: Grant Won For Legal Advice and Information Project