Ethiopia rejects UN human rights council resolution to meddle in its internal affairs

The Federal government of Ethiopia has rejected a decision by the UN human rights council to establish an international commission of human rights experts on Ethiopia, yet the same was jointly investigated by the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission and the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in August.

The resolution was made on Friday in a special session held at the request of the European Union, to discuss the impact of conflict that began in Tigray in November last year when Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) attacked military facilities in the area with an aim of capturing weaponry to forcefully change government.

Before the sitting, Ethiopia had made several requests for the Council not to hold a special session but rather engage in a constructive manner and work in a collaborative spirit with the country concerned, something that could not happen because third of the Council’s 47 Members supported the request by European Union, thus the resolution.

TPLF which ruled Ethiopia for 27 years, lost power in 2018 after waves of popular protests that swept across the country and internal struggles within the ruling party for almost two years, bringing in the current Prime Minister, Dr. Abiy Ahmed through elections.

The group which retreated into self isolation failed to come to terms with losing the influence and undue privilege they enjoyed but vowed to do whatever it takes to regain control of the country’s political power.

Indeed, they have for more than a year been heavily involved in planning and implementing violence and conflict currently seen in the country including killing innocent people, raping women and girls, using children as soldiers etcetera.

In August, the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission and the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights jointly conducted an investigation into alleged atrocities.

The investigation which covered the period between November 3, 2020 and June 28, 2021 found that both the TPLF and the Ethiopian government forces and allied militia had committed atrocities, including killings, rape, forcible displacement and torture, but it did not find evidence of genocide.

Ethiopia has since set up an Inter-Ministerial Taskforce to implement the recommendations of the report including prosecution, rehabilitation of those) who surrender, providing humanitarian services and assisting those who were sexually violated.

Accordingly to Ethiopia, the UN Human Rights Council should instead encourage OHCHR and EHRC to continue with joint investigation in areas which the JIT could not access due to insecurity, and to cover the period following 28 June 2021 which was not covered by the joint investigation as opposed to setting up a new probe.

“Ethiopia is extremely disappointed to have witnessed once again the use of the Human Rights Council by some to advance their politically motivated agenda,” reads a statement by the country’s Foreign Affairs Ministry in part.

The Horn of Africa nation says establishing the probe is against the recommendations by the Joint Investigative Team of both OHCHR and EHRC and that “it is an attempt to find an alternative way of meddling in the internal affairs of the sovereign state and serves no purpose except exacerbating the situation on ground.”

“What is even more worrying is that this trend in the proliferation of establishing mechanisms through the Council in most cases have failed to attain their objectives and have become merely tools of imposition on countries who refuse interference in their internal affairs”

“This is why Ethiopia has categorically rejected the special session its politically motivated outcome which undermines trust in the work of the Council and most importantly, the territorial integrity, national sovereignty and political independence of Ethiopia,” adds the statement.

African countries on Tuesday rallied behind Ethiopia in protesting against yesterday’s special session at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva. None of the continent’s 13 representatives on the 47-member body backed a proposal for the Human Rights Council to discuss Ethiopia conflict.

But during the session yesterday, the draft resolution before the Council to establish an international commission of human rights experts on Ethiopia, was supported by 21 countries with 15 against and 11 abstaining.

Ethiopia however empharsizes that they will not cooperate with the established probe team.

Ethiopia would like to reiterate that it will not cooperate with the established mechanism imposed upon it against its consent.

“No more double standards, no more to unilateral coercive measures and no more to meddling in internal affairs under the pretext of human rights,” adds the statement.

It should be remembered that efforts by the Ethiopian government to make peace with the Tigray fighters and restore normalcy in the Northern part of the country like implementing Ceasefire in June, attempts to dialogue with the fighting group and sending humanitarian aid to affected areas, met with objection by the TPLF, have gone unnoticed by the UN, its agencies and the rest of the international community.

There is a wide belief that some members of the international community are actually backing and amplifying criminal activities of TPLF and are actually helping to drive their agenda of forcefully and illegally getting back government, the reason they have never condemned the atrocities commited by TPLF on the innocent people.