Report on Citizenship Law: Ethiopia to the repressive military rule many Ethiopians were forced to flee the country, live in foreign lands and naturalised as foreign citizens. 5. The development of the law from 1991 to the present The Dergue regime was oppressive and suppressive in many regards, and this resulted in the formation of rebel groups. The Tigrayan Peoples' Liberation Front (TPLF) was the most important of these. It developed into a coalition of forces called the Ethiopian Peoples' Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) and after 17 years of struggle it managed to displace the Dergue government in 1991. In the same year, the EPRDF formed a transitional government26 based on a transitional charter that was effective from 1991 to 1995. Although the charter managed to establish a road map for governance, and most importantly it adopted the UN Charter on Human Rights, it did not contain articles pertaining to nationality issues. In its Article 9 (g) the Charter gave the council of representatives the power to establish a council of Constitutional Commission (CC).27 Consequently, in August 1992 Proclamation number 24/1992, “A Proclamation to Provide for the Establishment of the Constitutional Commission” was issued in Negarit Gazeta, Year 51, No.20. The CC composition comprised 29 members with equal votes: 7 members of the COR, 7 members of political organisations, 3 members from trade unions, 3 members from the Chamber of Commerce, 2 members from the Ethiopian Lawyers Association, 2 members from the Ethiopian Teachers’ Association, 2 members from the Ethiopian Health Professionals’ Association and 3 women representatives (Article 7). The Chairman of the CC’s Executive Committee was the late Ato Kifle Wadajo. 5.1. The secession of Eritrea In 1952 the United Nations made a federation of Ethiopia and Eritrea under two different governments.28 Ten years later in 1962, Ethiopia annexed Eritrea. This sparked an independence struggle which lasted for 30 years. The insurrection in Eritrea was one of the factors that caused the downfall of the Dergue. When the Dergue fell in 1991, Eritrea unilaterally declared its independence from Ethiopia. A succinct historical summary of the secession of Eritrea from Ethiopia in 1993 notes as follows: Eritrean and Ethiopian government representatives discussed Eritrea’s relationship to Ethiopia during talks in Addis Ababa on July 1-5, 1991. The government agreed to recognise the right of the Eritreans to hold a referendum regarding their status. The UN General Assembly established the United Nations Observer Mission to Verify the Referendum in Eritrea (UNOVER), which consisted of some 110 election monitors, on 26 A copy of the charter can be accessed at https://chilot.files.wordpress.com/2011/11/the-transitional-periodcharter-of-ethiopia.pdf. Last accessed on 18 February 2020. 27 Under Article 7 of the charter, the council of representatives exercised a legislative function. It was composed of representatives of national liberation movements, other political organisations and prominent individuals, with a total of no more than 87 members. 28 See, University of Central Arkansas, Political Science, 16. Ethiopia/ Eritrea (1950-1993), available at https://uca.edu/politicalscience/dadm-project/sub-saharan-africa-region/ethiopiaeritrea-1950-1993/, last accessed on 28 February 2020. RSCAS/GLOBALCIT-CR 2020/9 - © 2020 Author(s) 9