Objective 3: To Promote and Protect Human Rights (i.e. economic, social, cultural, civil and political rights) I. Summary of CSAR 164. The CSAR asserts that the Ethiopian Constitution provides for the protection of the exhaustive list of the civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights of the individual, as protected under the major human rights related international instruments ratified by Ethiopia. In addition to the Constitution, other laws have been passed to strengthen human rights and to prevent abuses. The report notes that over the last decade, human rights protection has improved considerably from what it used to be under the regimes in power prior to 1991. The improvement was achieved mainly through: (a) the entrenchment of a Bill of Rights in the Federal Constitution, which came into force in 1995; (b) the creation of the institutions of the Human Rights Commission and the Ombudsman, with specific mandates to promote and, along with the judiciary, to protect human rights; and, (c) massive and continuous human rights and good governance training for key law enforcement personnel, including judges, prosecutors and police, as well as other security agencies, and the general public. 165. The CSAR discusses at length individual rights to equal protection under the law, access to justice, and the right of every Nation, Nationality and People to selfdetermination. It also enumerates the economic, social and cultural rights under Article 41 of the Constitution which provides extensive protection and imposes obligations on government at federal and state levels to facilitate the enjoyment of these rights by the individual. 166. According to the CSAR, during the last decade, the country performed extremely well, especially in the education, health, infrastructure, telecommunications and housing sectors, although, as it also observes, government performance over housing continues to be constrained by limited available resources. 167. However, the CSAR points out that various stakeholders have complained of violations and/or undue Government restrictions of the following rights guaranteed by the Constitution: • Freedom of speech and of the press; • Freedom from arbitrary arrest and detention; • Freedom of assembly; - 90 -