• Commentary
    May 18, 2012
    Mariam was painfully thin. Several of her 13 children peered out from behind her with hollow eyes. "I am trying to save my children. We are not living. We are subhuman," she told me. Food aid was available in her village in Southern Ethiopia. But not for her children. Her husband belonged to the wrong political party.
  • Letter
    May 18, 2012
    Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International write to express their concern about President Obama's invitation to Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi to attend a meeting on food security during the G-8 summit at Camp David on May 19.
  • Press release
    Mar 28, 2012
    Pro-government militias in Somalia have committed summary executions and torture in the towns of Beletweyne and Baidoa since occupying them with Ethiopian forces earlier in 2012.
  • Press release
    Mar 23, 2012
    Lebanese authorities should act quickly to reform restrictive visa regulations and adopt a labor law on domestic work to address high levels of abuse and deaths among migrant domestic workers. The government should also announce publicly the outcome of the investigation into the recent abuse and subsequent suicide of Alem Dechasa-Desisa, an Ethiopian domestic worker.
  • Press release
    Feb 1, 2012
    On February 3, 2012, the Cassation Bench of the Federal Supreme Court of Ethiopia will hear a petition by the Human Rights Council (HRCO), Ethiopia’s oldest human rights organization, to admit an appeal against the freezing of its bank accounts. Amnesty International, ARTICLE 19, CIVICUS, East and Horn of Africa Human Rights Defenders Project and Human Rights Watch express deep concern at the obstacles and restrictions to which HRCO and other human rights organizations in Ethiopia are now subjected, as illustrated by this case. The decision of the Supreme Court will be of great significance for the future of HRCO’s vital work and for the wider promotion and protection of human rights in Ethiopia.
  • Press release
    Jan 19, 2012

    The Ethiopian Federal High Court on January 19, 2012, convicted three Ethiopian journalists, an opposition leader, and a fifth person under an anti-terrorism law that violates free expression and due process rights. The Ethiopian government should immediately drop the case, release the defendants, and investigate their allegations of torture in detention.

  • Press release
    Jan 17, 2012
    The Ethiopian government under its “villagization” program is forcibly relocating approximately 70,000 indigenous people from the western Gambella region to new villages that lack adequate food, farmland, healthcare, and educational facilities. State security forces have repeatedly threatened, assaulted, and arbitrarily arrested villagers who resist the transfers.
  • Press release
    Jan 4, 2012
    The Somaliland authorities should cease forcibly returning refugees and asylum seekers to possible persecution in Ethiopia. On December 28, authorities returned 20 Ethiopian refugees and asylum seekers in violation of the fundamental international refugee law prohibition against “refoulement,” the forcible return of anyone to persecution or to a place where their life or freedom is threatened.
  • Press release
    Dec 21, 2011
    An Ethiopian court’s conviction of two Swedish journalists on charges of supporting terrorism after an unfair trial demonstrates that the country’s anti-terrorism law is fundamentally flawed and being used to repress legitimate reporting. In the absence of genuine evidence against the journalists, the government should immediately drop the terrorism charges against them.
  • Press release
    Nov 21, 2011
    The Ethiopian government should cease using its overly broad anti-terrorism law against journalists and peaceful political activists.