AI on Ethiopia: Truth, Justice, Reparation, and Guarantees of Non Recurrence Must be Promoted

👉 Courtesy: Amnesty International

🛑 Key Amnesty International Documents on Ethiopia for reference

• Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch research on crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing in Ethiopia’s Western Tigray Zone, April 2022 (Index: AFR 25/5444/2022) amnesty.org/en/documents/afr25/5444/2022/en/

• Amnesty International, research on the Axum Massacre, February 2021 (Index: AFR 25/3730/2021) amnesty.org/en/documents/afr25/3730/2021/en/

• Amnesty International, research on rape, sexual slavery, extrajudicial executions, and pillage In Tigray region, September 2023 (Index: AFR 25/7152/2023) amnesty.org/en/documents/afr25/7152/2023/en/

• Amnesty International, research on extrajudicial executions in Bahir Dar, February 2024 (Index: AFR 25/7696/2024) amnesty.org/en/documents/afr25/7696/2024/en/

• Amnesty International, research on the summary killings, rape and looting in Amhara, February 2022 (Index: AFR 25/5218/2022) amnesty.org/en/documents/afr25/5218/2022/en/

• Amnesty International, gang rape, looting and physical assaults in the Amhara region, November 2021
amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2021/11/ethiopia-survivors-of-tplf-attack-in-amhara-describegang-rape-looting-and-physical-assaults/

• Amnesty International, report on rape and sexual violence in the conflict in Tigray, August 2021 (Index: AFR 25/4569/2021) amnesty.org/en/documents/afr25/4569/2021/en/

• Amnesty International, report on violations by Ethiopian security forces in Amhara and Oromia, May 2020 (Index: AFR 25/4569/2021) amnesty.org/en/documents/afr25/2358/2020/en/

• Amnesty International, public statement on states failure to continue UN accountability mechanism, October 2023 (Index: AFR 25/7271/2023) amnesty.org/en/documents/afr25/7271/2023/en/

• Amnesty International, report on Meta's contribution to human rights abuses in northern Ethiopia, October 2023 (Index: AFR 25/7292/2023) amnesty.org/en/documents/afr25/7292/2023/en/

🛑 Freedom of Expression and Protection of Human Rights Defenders (HRDs)

• Urgently amend and enforce laws protecting freedom of expression, association, and peaceful assembly in strict compliance with international human rights standards. This includes removing restrictive provisions within the Anti-Terrorism Proclamation and the Civil Society Organizations
(CSO) Proclamation, which have been used to suppress dissent and limit civic space.

• Take immediate and decisive action to ensure law enforcement and security forces stop the arbitrary arrests, detentions, and harassment of media professionals, human rights defenders, and civil society actors.

• Immediately restore and guarantee continuous, uninterrupted access to the internet across the country. End deploying internet shutdowns as a tool to control information or suppress dissent, as they constitute a violation of the public’s right to information and freedom of expression.

• Cease reprisals against human rights defenders who engage with treaty body mechanisms on human rights issues, including through transnational harassment. Accountability for Crimes under International Law.

• Investigate and prosecute violations of international law by ensuring that any alleged crimes committed by all parties to armed conflicts – including by the Ethiopian National Defense Force (ENDF) and allied forces and Tigrayan Forces – since the end of 2020 are fully investigated, prosecuted, and brought before a civilian court, without recourse to the death penalty.

• Suspend civilian officials implicated in serious abuses, including war crimes and crimes against humanity, and ensure that those responsible are prosecuted.

• Refrain from granting amnesties for serious international crimes, including gross violations of human rights and breaches of international humanitarian law.

• Align the ongoing Transitional Justice policy with Ethiopia's international legal obligations to guarantee accountability, justice, reparations, and guarantees of non-repetition.

🛑 Conflict-Related Sexual Violence

• Issue an immediate and public order to Ethiopian armed and security forces prohibiting sexual violence.

• Ensure that the Eritrean Defense Forces (EDF) publicly issue orders to soldiers in Ethiopia prohibiting conflict-related sexual violence.

• Ensure full cooperation from the EDF and other relevant Eritrean authorities with investigations into rape, sexual slavery, and other forms of sexual violence perpetrated by the EDF in Tigray.

• Ensure prompt, effective, independent, impartial, and transparent investigations into sexual violence committed by the ENDF and other forces in the context of armed conflict since 2020.

• Ensure prioritized access to sexual and reproductive health care services for survivors of conflictrelated sexual violence.

• Ensure that survivors of rape and other forms of sexual violence are included in government decision-making processes that affect them, including in the ongoing transitional justice process.

• Respond favorably and without further delay to requests for country visits by the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment and the UN Special Rapporteur on the Promotion of Truth, Justice, Reparation, and Guarantees of Non Recurrence.