Ethiopia has adopted ethnic-based federal system as a response to National Questions in the country during the reign of EPRDF regime.  As this federal system is based on ethnicity, ethnic identity has become the key instrument regarding entitlement, representation and state organization. Now, the key to get access to the resources of the state is to acquire a separate ethnic identity and an ethnically defined administrative structure. Based on the analytical literature review, the study has examined the challenges posed by ethnic-based federal system to protect the rights of minority groups and individuals residing within ethnically designated regional states.  The federal system has created its own types of political challenges for the protections of the rights of non-indigenous minority groups.  It is constraining rather than enlarging the political space for an overall citizenship. The idea of overarching citizenship that transcends ethnic identity is lacking in the federal system. The ethnic federal system also lacks mechanism for monitoring human rights at ethnically designated sub-state levels. The study, therefore, suggest reformulating the federal system, strictly respecting the principles of the federal constitution and revisiting regional state constitutions to avoid contradiction to the supreme federal constitution.

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The study investigated the practice of ethnic federal system along with ethnic rights to selfdetermination and associated conflicts in the context of Southern Regional state of Ethiopia. This study is a qualitative research that employed both primary and secondary sources. The federal system is based on the constitutional conviction that ethnic groups in Ethiopia have the right to self-determination up to secession. By using ethnicity as an instrument to establish the constituent units, ethnic entitlement and political representations, the federal system has uniquely formalized politics of ethnicity in Ethiopia. Practically, the federal system in Ethiopia faces anomalous asymmetries both within the four ethno-parties that formed the Ruling party and constituent units. Despite rhetorically committing to multi-party politics and democracy, the political regime in power is markedly intolerant of political pluralism. The 'making and remaking' of the regions and local ethnic political parties in Southern Ethiopia has led to conglomeration of 56 ethnic groups into a single region. Instead of ethnic right to self-determination in accordance with the constitutional principles, the ruling party has gradually put efforts into administrative integration of diverse ethnic groups. This is one of the underlying causes for ethnic autonomy conflicts in the region. It is time for the ruling party to accept the consequences of the constitutional choices, to protect the constitutionally declared principle of federalism, to respect ethnic right to self-governance in Ethiopia beyond ideological and political motives.

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