Panel Discussion: Human Rights and Elections 2010 in Ethiopia
SOCEPP Canada had a very successful conference in Ottawa , Canada yesterday, Nov 18, 2009, where seven Canadian Members of Parliament and a number of government and non government official attended. The issue was Human Rights and the year 2010 election in Ethiopia . A complete report including presentations by Amnesty International Head in Canada , and other senior Canadian NGO leaders will be posted soon. In the mean time we have posted the the Agenda ,the openiong speech delivered by SOCEPP-CANDA representative Aklilu Wondaferew and the press release .
Panel Discussion: Human Rights and Elections 2010 in Ethiopia
SOCEPP Canada had a very successful conference in Ottawa , Canada yesterday, Nov 18, 2009, where seven Canadian Members of Parliament and a number of government and non government official attended. The issue was Human Rights and the year 2010 election in Ethiopia . A complete report including presentations by Amnesty International Head in Canada , and other senior Canadian NGO leaders will be posted soon. In the mean time we have posted the the Agenda and the openiong speech delivered by SOCEPP-CANDA representative Aklilu Wondaferew. .
In recent years, armed groups have committed a number of bombings and other attacks in Ethiopia or on Ethiopia's diplomatic missions. A May 2008 explosion on a minibus in Ethiopia's capital Addis Ababa, for which a little known group called the Islamic Guerrillas claimed responsibility, killed three people on the eve of national celebrations.[1] In October 2008 the Ethiopian trade mission in Hargeisa, Somaliland, was one of the targets of multiple suicide bombings that killed at least 20 people; the attacks were blamed on al-Shabaab, a Somali armed group with alleged links to al Qaeda.[2]
Ethiopia reportedly considered adopting anti-terror legislation in 2006,[3] and a law was said to be in preparation in 2008.[4] In June 2009 Human Rights Watch obtained an English-language translation of the draft as submitted to parliament by the Council of Ministers. This analysis is based on that draft. An earlier version of this analysis was based on an unofficial draft of the Proclamation dated January 2009. To date the draft anti-terrorism legislation does not appear to have been publicly circulated or discussed, including with civil society, although a public debate took place in parliament on June 25, 2009. (Read the full text)
WAR CRIMES!!!
An Open Letter to the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights
Justice Navanathem Pillay
...The action that the International Criminal Court has taken in this situation has restored hope to peace and justice loving people, affirming that international human rights law not only exists on paper, but in reality. It also sends an important message to perpetrators throughout the world that impunity for their crimes is not assured forever; which may be a primary reason that one of the first leaders to defend Omar al-Bashir and condemn the warrant was Prime Minister Meles Zenawi of Ethiopia, whose government has also been implicated in a pattern of widespread perpetration of serious human rights atrocities in Ethiopia and in Somalia....(Read all)
War Crimes and Crimes against Humanity in the Ogaden area of Ethiopia's Somali Regional State
Tens of thousands of ethnic Somali civilians living in eastern Ethiopia’s Somali Regional State are experiencing serious abuses and a looming humanitarian crisis in the context of a little-known conflict between the Ethiopian government and an Ethiopian Somali rebel movement. The situation is critical. Since mid-2007, thousands of people have fled, seeking refuge in neighboring Somalia and Kenya from widespread Ethiopian military attacks on civilians and villages that amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Ishmael Noor, a 37-year-old shepherd from the Ogaden region in Ethiopia, looked up with tears in his eyes. He said that in 2004, Ethiopian forces-who had already killed his mother, father, brothers, and sisters-murdered his wife days after they were married. They then slaughtered his goats, beat him unconscious, and slashed his shoulder to the bone……
…...It is long past time for the Ethiopian government to provide basic due process rights to the people who remain in its custody, and for Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, and the United States-the governments implicated in what are enforced disappearances under international law-to disclose the identities, fates, and whereabouts of past and present detainees (Click here for the whole report)
On January 6, 2009, Ethiopia's parliament enacted a new law on nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) that criminalizes most human rights work in the country, Human Rights Watch said today. Human Rights Watch said that the law is a direct rebuke to governments that assist Ethiopia and that had expressed concerns about the law's restrictions on freedom of association and expression. (read more)
EU SHOULD NOT TOLERATE ETHIOPIA'S REPRESSION by Lotte Leicht February 18, 2009
The EU should have condemned one of world's worst laws on NGOs. Instead, it gave Ethiopia €250 million. (click here for full story)
