Human rights are inborn rights for which all human beings are entitled by nature. And also, they are the most important rights of human beings.
Human rights are not granted by the government or anybody. Therefore, they are originated from the nature of the human being.
Ethiopia has signed almost all major international human rights treaties. And also, the issue of human rights received the greatest recognition in the current Constitution of Ethiopia which was approved in 1995 but the practical implementation of these rights is still subject to strong criticisms by different bodies with many citizens suffering from gross human rights abuses, particularly before the advent of the current major reforms.
More specifically, before the coming of Prime Minister Dr. Abiy Ahmed to office in April 2018, there were serious violations of human rights on Ethiopian citizens. Torture had been practiced at various prisons in the country.
After years of widespread protests against government policies and brutal security force repression, the human rights landscape transformed in 2018 when Abiy Ahmed became prime minister in April. The government lifted the state of emergency in June and released thousands of political prisoners from detention, including journalists and key opposition leaders, according to the 2019 Human Rights Watch report.
Ethiopian parliament lifted the ban on three opposition groups, Ginbot 7, Oromo Liberation Front (OLF), an Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) in June 2018.
Many members of opposition parties, activists, and journalists and other groups have come home from years of exile. And also, Ethiopia released journalists who had been wrongfully detained or convicted on politically motivated charges.
The federal Attorney General’s Office dropped all pending charges against bloggers, journalists, and diaspora-based media organizations. Television stations that had previously faced charges of violence-inciting for criticizing the government reopened in Addis Ababa in June, following calls by Prime Minister Dr. Abiy for diaspora-based television stations to return. Additionally, the government lifted obstructions to access to more than 250 websites.
Ethiopia closed Makaelawi detention center, known for the torture and mistreatment of political prisoners.
Since April 2018, the government released many political prisoners across the country; many political parties have been invited to struggle peacefully, and facilitated good conditions for media, brought relative media freedom, and released blocked media. And also, many of Ethiopia’s repressive laws used to silence dissent and restrict citizens’ meaningful engagement—including the Charities and Societies Proclamation, the Media Law, and the Anti-Terrorism Proclamation—were being revised, according to the report of Ethiopian Human Rights Council.
Last fiscal year, House of Peoples’ Representatives says it has played a great role in terms of controlling and monitoring institutions of justice and democracy.
A representative of House Legal, Justice and Democracy Standing Committee Head Yeshimebet Negash told The Ethiopian Herald the standing committee evaluated the plans of fifteen justice and democracy institutions and gave feedback at the beginning of the fiscal year.
She said some of the institutions receive written feedback while the rest submitted their reports in person to the Standing Committee.
According to her, last fiscal year, it was planned to conduct ten inspections but inspections were conducted at seven institutions in Addis Ababa.
She noted that according to the plan approved by the House, the standing committee made three regular and two special inspections and provided feedback to leaders at all levels at the institutions under review.
“In the budget year, we had passed 10 draft proclamations for the different democratic institutions and one of those was directed to our committee directly. We made recommendations to the House for approval by making the necessary reviews,” she said.
She reported that the main challenges were: referring draft laws that do not concern the committee; the quality problem of draft law; lack of lawyers support; lack of people’s involvement; and others.
A former member of the opposition party and former Member of Parliament, Abdurahman Ahmedin; however, held a different opinion. He told The Ethiopian Herald that the 1999 Human Rights Proclamation came up with many questions. But so far the proclamation has not been amended for 20 years.
As stated in the proclamation, the Commissioner of the Ethiopian Human Rights Council and the head of Ombudsman are appointed by the public. But, as we have seen in the previous years, they were appointed out by the ruling party, he said. And such practices ought to be improved,
Wubshet Mulat, a lawyer, insisted that, in addition to monitoring and supervising the law enforcing body, the house should enact laws to guide the behavior, to build and shape the democratic process, and to promote human rights.
The Ethiopian Herald Friday 27 December 2019
BY ABDUREZAK MOHAMMED
