Movement of Persons in Regional Economic Communities in Eastern Africa A Comparative Study

The book provides a comparative assessment of the legal regimes governing movement of persons in East African region. It compares the approaches used by the regional integration arrangements adopted both at the continental and sub-regional level in governing mobility matters. In doing so, it assesses the policy coherence in the RECs and evaluates the strengths and weaknesses as well as the implementation impediments. The book provides a detailed assessment of what and who is covered in multilateral regimes governing, directly and indirectly, mobilities; and identifies lesson that can be drawn from regional integration arrangements in other parts of the world- particularly the EU. The book also offers analysis of the different challenges hampering implementation of the mobility regimes adopted in the selected African RECs and proposes potential policy and legal recommendation. The book can be used by policy makers and researchers working on African integrations matters.

Introduction.- Multilateral Framework Governing Movement of Persons: Gats in Focus.- Regional Integration and Free Movement of Persons: Experience of Europe and Nafta.- African Economic Integration Schemes and Free Movement of Persons.- Labour Mobility Under the Recs in Eastern and Southern African Countries.- Bilateral Labour (Migration) Agreements.- Challenges in Implementing Free Movement of Persons.- Final Remarks.

Martha Belete Hailu is an Assistant Professor of Law at the School of Law, Addis Ababa University. Her research areas focus on African regional integration, Ethiopian Bilateral Investment treaties and laws and WTO law in general. She has published in international and local journals on these themes. She also served as co- editor of the Ethiopian Year Book of International Law, published by Springer, for volumes 2-4.  She is member of the technical committee of the AfCFTA phase two negotiation for Ethiopia where she closely collaborates with the Ministry of Trade and Regional Integration (MoTRI) of Ethiopia regarding the phase II protocols. She has also served as member of the Investment Law reform technical committee that prepared the 2020 (currently in force) investment proclamation and regulation of Ethiopia.