American Research Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences

The right to self-determination is a fundamental principle of international law, influencing relationships between states and amongst the subunits and peoples who make up those states. Rooted in the politics of decolonization, the right to self-determination is now invoked by groups in a variety of political contexts around the world to support claims for secession, increased autonomy and democratic participation. The paper aimed to investigate the Constitutional and legal provisions of Awi nationality self-administration: Theory vs. practice. To address the objectives of the study, the researcher employed a qualitative approach with a case study as study design and used primary and secondary data sources. Primary data was collected from the key informant interview and focus group discussions. Secondary data was collected from different books, reports, journals, published and unpublished proclamations, conference papers, dissertations, the federal democratic republic of Ethiopia constitution, and the revised Constitution of Amhara. The researcher used purposive sampling and the thematic analysis method based on the objectives of the study. With the view to realizing the right of self-administration in the Ethiopian federal structure, the finding of the study has revealed that The applicability of self administration can also see in the area of shared rule; based on the study the Ethiopian legal system manifested in fiscal power-sharing, representation of minorities in the federal houses, and the participation of minorities in the regional council.