Today and tomorrow, the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia is being reviewed in Geneva by the Committee against Torture. The focus of the review is Ethiopia’s implementation of the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, which Ethiopia ratified as far back as 14 March 1994.

On 23 May 2010, the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) won the presidential election in a landslide victory. Prime Minister Meles Zenawi has been in power since 1991. His government has yet to demonstrate effectively its commitment to democracy, and civil and political rights, especially the right to freedom of expression. As the article published on the Human Rights House Network’s website on 19 July 2010 by Alemayehu Mariam, Political Science professor at California State University, demonstrates, Ethiopia’s human rights record is decreasing at an alarming rate.

Despite supporting four Ethiopian partner organisations to submit their joint report and participate in Geneva at the Universal Periodic Review in 2009 of their own country, the Human Rights House Foundation (HRHF) did not provide any written information on Ethiopia to the Committee against Torture. This was the situation also when Ethiopia was reviewed by the Human Rights Committee earlier this year. On both occasions, the reason was that HRHF’s local partner organisations have been silenced as human rights organisations. HRHF has made statements addressing this.

As it was done at the 99th session of the Human Rights Committee, HRHF’s Head of the Geneva office, Florian Irminger participated in the NGO briefing at the opening of the 45th session of the Committee against Torture. He explained to the Committee that "from now on, there is reason to believe that independent human rights work will only be done in a low-key, discrete manner, reactively, and mostly in terms of service provision to individual victims — torture cases will not be brought to the public anymore, nor will there be any activities monitoring the implementation of Ethiopia’s international obligations to prevent acts of torture in any territory under its jurisdiction (art. 2 § 1 of the Convention)."

Ethiopia reviewed at the United Nations

Other UN treaty bodies will also review Ethiopia in the upcoming year.

Late confessions in state report
Ethiopia’s state submission for the country’s CAT review makes interesting reading. On a total of 17 and a half page, 16 and a half are spent describing the country’s relevant legislation, which appears to be good enough. A nationwide effort to bring Ethiopia in line with its obligations under the Convention Against Torture is described, but the conclusion is that ‘the full and effective implementation of the Convention throughout the country is far from reality’. Furthermore, although measures so far taken to prevent and punish torture and similar crimes’ are found to be ‘encouraging,’ it is also admitted that ‘those measures have not been able to reduce these crimes to the point that the State considers them sufficient’.

On the very last page, attention turns to a small part of the reality re. torture in Ethiopia, in the form of a summary of the findings of the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission’s Prison Visit Report of July 2008. No other instances than those described in this report are mentioned in the state submission for the country’s CAT review. In EHRC’s prison visit report, though, it is found that ‘in few instances,’ prisoners are subjected to beatings. Some have also been immersed into tankers full of water in order to prevent them from breathing. Others have been forced to roll in the mud, or been flogged after being put into water.

Most prisons in the country are not built for the purpose, and were found to be inadequate in many ways. Hygienic conditions were found lacking, and many prisons held far too many prisoners, adding to the problem. Bedrooms were found to be below standard, and all this adding up to the report concluding that ‘in some instances it is difficult to state that the constitutional rights of persons held in custody and convicted prisoners are fully protected’. Food budgets were found to be inadequate, and a shortage of water was also observed. The same applied to access to medicine and general health care: In some prisons it was adequate, in others clearly not.

In a non-state report, submitted by a torture survivor from Ethiopia, the country is accused of far more severe and widespread use of torture than the state report admits to. Interviews made with Ethiopian Oromo refugees in camps across the border to Kenya reveal that 80 percent of the men had been tortured during detention. Close to all had been detained. Of the women refugees interviewed, detention was less common. Even so, more than half had been detained. 56 % of those detained had been raped during detention.

The non-state report also confirms previous instances of Ethiopian ‘security agents’ operating for instance in nairobi, tracking down and attacking Ethiopians who have fled the country. ‘Significant and serious threats from those acting on behalf of the Ethiopian government are common and affect large numbers of refugees,’ the report concludes.    

Documentation:

Documentation submitted to the Committee against Torture for its 45th session:

NGO law in Ethiopia:

As the Human Rights House Foundation wrote in January 2009 and repeated at the Human Rights Committee in July this year, Ethiopia has received massive criticism from human rights organisations from around the world for the CSO law.The law violates the country’s own constitution and international law and standards:

  • Organisations can only operate when registered. The grounds upon which organisations will not be registered, or may lose their registration are very broad;
  • Violations of the CSO law can result in many years’ imprisonment and heavy fines;
  • Foreign organisations that work on issues such as human rights, governance and gender are not allowed anymore to operate in Ethiopia;
  • The same goes for Ethiopian organisations that receive more than 10% of their funding from abroad;
  • Hardly any possibility to appeal against decisions of the Charities and Societies Agency (CSA), which will oversee all CSOs in Ethiopia.

The International Centre for Not-for-Profit Law gives more information on this matter. The adopted law can be found here (after free registration).

How to report to United Nations treaty bodies?

The treaty bodies receive information from NGOs at different stages of the reporting process. As an NGO, you can also meet with the treaty bodies. These briefings take place prior to  the examination of the State party’s report by the committees. Approaches from local and national NGOs, who can provide direct country-specific information to the members of the committees, are especially appreciated.

Report to the Human Rights Committee for its review of Ethiopia in 2011, on the implementation of civil and political rights in Ethiopia.

If you need more information, please contact HRHF’s Geneva office:
Human Rights House Foundation’s Geneva office
Tel: +4122 33 22 553
E-mail: geneva