• Human Rights in Ethiopia
    The death of Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, who took power in 1991, creates an opportunity for new leadership to support human rights. Meles’ government had severely restricted the rights to freedom of expression and association. Since late 2011, journalists and four opposition supporters had been convicted under the country’s anti-terror law. A draconian civil society law hampers independent human rights work. The government’s development policies, including large-scale commercial agricultural, has led to forced resettlement of indigenous populations, who lose their livelihoods in the process and are subjected to arbitrary arrests and assaults by the armed forces. For their part, international donors to Ethiopia have been too quiet about Ethiopia's deteriorating rights situation.
  • Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi.
    © 2010 UN Photo
    Ethiopia: Transition Should Support Human Rights Reform
    Ethiopia’s new leadership should commit to fundamental human rights reforms in the wake of the death of Prime Minister Meles Zenawi. Meles’s death was announced by the Ethiopian state media on August 21, 2012.
More news »

Featured Content

Subscribe to content feed

Reports

More >>

Ethiopia

  • Ethiopia: 4 Journalists Win Free Speech Prize
    Dec 20, 2012
    Four Ethiopian journalists have received the prestigious Hellman/Hammett award for 2012 in recognition of their efforts to promote free expression in Ethiopia, one of the world’s most restricted media environments.
  • World Bank: Uphold Rights
    Nov 15, 2012
    The World Bank should incorporate human rights in its revised policies as a key component of fulfilling its mission to eradicate poverty. A new review of the World Bank’s environmental and social policies, known as the “safeguard” policies, begins with a consultation meeting in Washington, DC on November 15, 2012.
  • Joint Letter to Ethiopia on its Candidacy to the UN Human Rights Council
    Nov 8, 2012

    With elections to the United Nations Human Rights Council quickly approaching, and with Ethiopia standing as a candidate, a diverse group of nongovernmental organizations are writing to urge the Ethiopian government to demonstrate its commitment to the protection and promotion of human rights. 

  • Ethiopia: Candidacy to the Human Rights Council
    Nov 8, 2012
  • Ethiopia: Supreme Court Ruling Marks a Further Erosion of Human Rights Work
    Oct 18, 2012
    Amnesty International, CIVICUS and Human Rights Watch are deeply concerned at the 19 October 2012 decision by Ethiopia’s Supreme Court to uphold the freezing of the assets of the Human Rights Council, Ethiopia’s leading, and oldest, human rights organization and the Ethiopian Women Lawyers Association, a prominent women’s rights organization.
  • World Bank Support for “Development” by Force
    Oct 11, 2012
    Ethiopia remains in much need of development aid, particularly in the areas of food security, health, and education. But donors need to hold true to their own policies to ensure that they don’t fund harmful projects, directly or indirectly.
  • Ethiopia: Business as Usual
    Oct 3, 2012
    Despite Meles' passing, Ethiopia is continuing to conduct repressive policies, and international donors are continuing to ignore them.
  • Somaliland: Stop Deporting Ethiopian Refugees
    Sep 4, 2012

    The Somaliland authorities should immediately stop deporting Ethiopian refugees and asylum seekers to Ethiopia. On August 31, 2012, dozens of Ethiopians, mostly women and children, were forcibly returned to Ethiopia in violation of international legal prohibitions against sending people to places where they might face persecution or threats to their lives.

  • Death of an Autocrat: What Comes Next for Ethiopia?
    Aug 31, 2012
    The death of Meles Zenawi, under whom Ethiopia made strides despite repression, highlights the need for strong democratic institutions to maintain stability.
  • Ethiopia: Army Commits Torture, Rape
    Aug 28, 2012
    The Ethiopian military responded to an April 2012 attack on a large commercial farm in Gambella region with arbitrary arrests, rape, and other abuses against scores of local villagers. Forced displacement, inadequate resources, and other abuses against Gambella’s population persist in the second year of the government’s “villagization” program.
more documents on this topic »