The Ethiopian authorities are urged to immediately stop their increasing crackdown on civic space and independent domestic human rights organizations. This crackdown includes physical and digital surveillance, verbal harassment, intimidation, and threats, according to five international human rights organizations. These actions hinder human rights organizations from carrying out their crucial work of promoting and safeguarding human rights and accountability in the country.
In recent months, Ethiopian security and intelligence forces have intensified their intimidation, harassment, and threats against prominent Ethiopian human rights organizations, including the Ethiopian Human Rights Council (EHRCO), the oldest independent human rights organization in Ethiopia.
Since February 2024, government security forces and intelligence personnel have been monitoring staff members of human rights organizations at their workplaces and homes, demanding that they cease their human rights reporting and activities. These threats have escalated recently. For example, on May 23, security officials visited EHRCO’s branch office in Addis Ababa, sought information, and threatened two staff members in the process. In May, human rights defenders raised concerns that the harassment and intimidation were ongoing and worsening.
On April 6, 2024, two security personnel in plain clothes visited the home of an EHRCO staff member and warned them to stop their human rights work or face consequences. This incident followed similar incidents against EHRCO staff. In January 2023, Ethiopian police arrested and unlawfully detained four EHRCO staff members investigating forced evictions outside Addis Ababa. They were released on bail by an Oromia court on January 12, 2023.
In September 2022, security forces disrupted a peace conference organized by 35 local civil society organizations in Addis Ababa. The event later took place online, and the group issued a joint statement advocating for peace. However, a federal official intimidated the group into retracting the statement. The director-general of the Authority for Civil Society Organizations also stated that organizations working against Ethiopia’s sovereignty and public interest would be held accountable by law.
Human rights defenders have also expressed concerns that the ACSO has ceased registering new human rights civil society organizations since August 2023.
Efforts to silence civil society have been accompanied by ongoing attacks on independent media and dissenting voices, resulting in a shrinking space for civic activities and respect for human rights in Ethiopia. This trend has been observed over the past few years.
Since the state of emergency declaration in Amhara in August 2023, at least nine journalists have been detained, with five still in custody. For instance, Ethio News chief editor Belay Manaye has been held in Awash Arba military camp since December 6, 2023, without access to health care, family visits, or legal representation. Despite his relocation to Addis Ababa in late June, authorities have not charged him or brought him to court.
A recent report by the Ethiopian Press Freedom Defenders revealed that around 200 journalists have been arrested by the Ethiopian government since 2019. As of late 2023, eight journalists remained in prison, with four facing terrorism allegations that could lead to the death sentence if convicted. Internet access has also been restricted in parts of the Amhara region due to an ongoing armed conflict.
Due to the escalating crackdown on civic space and civil society organizations, several human rights defenders and journalists have fled the country in the past year. These intensified attacks significantly impede independent scrutiny and investigation of government actions and human rights abuses in Ethiopia. This growing intolerance for independent human rights reporting and government criticism echoes past tactics of harassment, office raids, and bureaucratic impediments used by the Ethiopian government against human rights defenders and civil society organizations following the enactment of the repressive legislation, the Charities and Civil Society Proclamation in 2009. The government amended this legislation significantly in 2019.
The organizations stress that Ethiopian authorities have taken extreme measures to suppress independent scrutiny and criticism in violation of fundamental rights to freedom of expression and association. Human rights organizations in Ethiopia should be allowed to conduct their work without fear of reprisals.
The Ethiopian authorities are called upon to uphold their human rights obligations under the Ethiopian Constitution, the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights to respect, protect, promote, and fulfill the rights to freedom of expression, association, and peaceful assembly.
In 2022 and 2023, the United Nations Human Rights Committee and the Committee against Torture recommended that the Ethiopian government protect journalists, human rights defenders, government critics, and activists from harassment, attacks, or undue interference in their professional activities. They also called for measures to prevent acts of intimidation or reprisal and create a safe environment for engagement with the United Nations and its mechanisms in the field of human rights.
The authorities are urged to collaborate with UN Special Procedures, including the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, and the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACPHR) Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders and Focal Point on Reprisals in Africa.
International and regional partners of Ethiopia should pressure Ethiopian authorities to respect the rights of political opponents, journalists, human rights defenders, and activists. They should also call for scrutiny by UN human rights bodies, including the UN Human Rights Council, and publicly acknowledge the critical situation facing human rights defenders in Ethiopia.
Signatories:
Amnesty International
Front Line Defenders
Human Rights Watch
International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), within the framework of the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders
World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT), within the framework of the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders
Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Human Rights Watch (HRW).