Among the major critics against ethnic federalism as an instrument of conflict management, is the risk that ethnic autonomy consolidates ethnic identity while providing incentives for ethnic elites to engage in a politics of division and amplification of grievances leading to recurrent discrimination and violence. This risk grows as urbanization brings ever increasingly diverse group of people to live in a close proximity.
To understand how effective Ethnic-federalism is in conflict management and preventing discrimination based on ethnic identity. This study surveyed the perception, experience and understanding of residents in the two cities.
Results reveal that a significant number of people feel they have experienced discrimination based on their ethics identity. 38% of respondents say they have been discriminated because of their ethnic identity at least once in the past 5 years. This discrimination includes a verbal or physical harassment and/or having to be denied of service or opportunities by a fellow citizen, a public servant or a private business owner. However, there is no visible disparity between ethnic Oromos and those who are of a different ethnic group. While more non-Oromo experienced
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While only 10% of those who have experienced discrimination say it has happened extremely regularly (at least once a week), a majority 56% say it happens very rarely (once a month or less). The remaining 24% and 20% say it happens regularly (once to three times a month) and rarely respectively. This is still a very high number considering the country has a strong law against hate speech and discrimination based on ethnic identity. Old derogatory classifications and name callings are forbidden by law and can lead to court cases for group insult (International Crisis Group 2009). However, Only 3% of respondents said they have reported such incidents to the police or brought their case to