Recently, the Ethiopian government scoffed at Genocide Watch’s request that the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees investigate human rights violations in the country. Genocide Watch primarily voiced its concern over the government’s involvement in atrocities committed against members of the Anuak ethnic group in 2005. The organization has concluded that the crimes committed against this group fit the definition of genocide. The Ethiopian government, in response, called the allegations “unfounded, fabricated lies.”
This turn of events is indicative of the increasingly adverse human rights situation in the country. The government’s general level of respect for civil liberties has been spiraling downward. More particularly, the rights of several of Ethiopia’s myriad ethnic groups have been jeopardized. The deplorable state of affairs has been brought about by both the government’s active undermining of minority protections and its failure to respond to allegations of human rights violations.
Ethiopia is populated by at least 80 different ethnic groups. The Oromo people, who make up 40-45% of the population, are the largest group, followed by the Amhara, who make up 25% of the population. The country’s political scene has traditionally been dominated by the Amhara people. More recently, however, the Tigray group has become the most powerful political entity. The Tigray, who make up less than 10% of Ethiopia’s population, exert their influence through the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), a party which constitutes the nucleus of the ruling Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (ERPRDF). Other important groups include the Oromo and Somali groups, who have traditionally been the targets of extensive persecution.
As the 2007 Countries at the Crossroads report notes, the EPRDF government made a concerted effort to respect ethnic rights in the country at the outset of its rule. When it came to power in 1991, the EPRDF nominally responded to the injustices suffered by the majority of the country’s ethnic communities. In the constitution drafted in 1995, the EPRDF government granted increased regional autonomy to various groups by creating a federal system based upon ethnic lines. It also incorporated these ethnic groups into the government by including their respective parties within the ruling coalition. In addition, the government made seemingly positive strides toward adopting good governance practices on such pressing issues as poverty and food insecurity.
Unfortunately, the positive trend towards respecting ethnic rights soon stalled out and then reversed itself. The government squeezed out all parties but the TPLF and its allies from the ruling coalition. In addition, violence and discrimination against ethnic groups resumed. While the human rights situation was unfortunate, the Ethiopian government seemed to remain committed to adopting reforms aimed at economic and political development well into this decade.
Nevertheless, by the 2005 elections, the hopes that technocratic governance improvements might be accompanied by further democratization had been dashed. During the run-up to the elections, the Ethiopian government became engaged in a campaign to intimidate and restrict the activities of opposition members. This political targeting was partially ethnic in nature. The All Ethiopian Unity Party, the main political party of the Amhara people, comprises an influential component of the country’s main opposition movement. The opposition, which is made up of the Coalition for Unity and Democracy and the United Ethiopian democratic Forces, campaigned for greater power and respect for the country’s different ethnic groups. Throughout this period, members of the opposition were harassed, arrested, and killed.
Persecution of this sort has continued into the present. A report released by the UN committee responsible for implementing the International Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Racial Discrimination reported that government agents including military officials and police officers had committed crimes against minority groups including the Anuak and the Oromo. Human Rights Watch has made similar claims. Most notably, it alleged that Ethiopian security forces have committed war crimes and crimes against humanity against ethnic Somalis residing in the Ogaden region. According to HRW, the most intense persecution took place in 2007, when Ethiopian troops tortured and raped innocent Somali civilians. In addition, HRW has echoed Genocide Watch’s accusation that heinous crimes were committed against the Anuak communities in the Gambella region from 2003-2005. In addition to these more extreme examples, the Minority Rights Group International has reported that the level of representation of minority groups at the government level remains unsatisfactory.
Due to its ever clearer involvement in the persecution of minority groups, the government’s response to this situation has been extremely lackluster. The Ethiopian government has failed to investigate allegations of discrimination and crimes; indeed, official government policy with regards to human rights abuses consists almost exclusively of denying all charges or turning a deaf ear. The fact that the country has refused to grant the requests of several international human rights organizations to investigate the situation on the ground has only lent credence to the allegations. In some cases, the Ethiopian government has felt compelled to counter the aforementioned NGO reports. For example, the government urged the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission to publish a report on the situation in the Ogaden region.Unfortunately, however, this commission is by no means an independent entity. As the 2007 Crossroads report maintains, it is largely a government tool and is given little actual authority to respond to violations. That being the case, the report’s finding that no human rights violations were committed in the region is both unsurprising and extremely suspect. This general failure to address the human rights crisis has perpetuated a strong culture of impunity in the country.
Given this situation, the onus of responding to and raising the alarm about the steady stream of violations has largely fallen on human rights organizations operating both within and outside of Ethiopia. However, the government has recently taken steps to control the activities of NGOs. On January 6, the Ethiopian parliament passed new regulations it claims are necessary in order to provide a favorable legal framework and environment for NGOs in the country. Nevertheless, the new law will bring decidedly negative consequences for ethnic rights, not to mention its freedom of association and assembly implications. The law labels as “foreign” any organization that receives over 10% of its funding from outside of Ethiopia. Most alarmingly, it goes on to prohibit these “foreign” NGOs from engaging in human rights and governance work. As a recent Human Rights Watch report notes, this law will be especially damaging due to the fact that there are very few organizations that engage in human rights work in Ethiopia and even fewer that will be able to qualify as “domestic” under the new law. Tragically, this law’s implementation may effectively stifle Ethiopia’s few remaining ethnic rights watchdogs.
As the domestic environment becomes more repressive, the role of international actors will become critical. While they may be unable to investigate violations on the ground, it will remain the responsibility of international human rights organizations to raise awareness about the crisis in Ethiopia and to continue petitioning international organizations such as the UN to respond to the issue. NGOs must continue to lobby world powers including the United States and the EU to speak out against Ethiopia’s abuses and provide support to human rights defenders within the country. Due to the fact that Ethiopia is highly dependent on foreign assistance to combat such daunting challenges as rampant poverty, food shortages, and a high prevalence of HIV/AIDS, international pressure of this sort could bear more fruit than pressure on regimes that are already more internationally isolated.
Photo Credit: Flickr user aheavens
