INTRODUCTION
The 2009/2010 fiscal year is the time during which the volunteers of HRLHA once again proved their commitment to defending human dignity. The human rights situation in the horn in general and in Ethiopia in particular is declining every year. It is very unfortunate and frustrating that even the 2010 election, the third since 1991, didn’t result in any change, and that the authoritarian regime remained in power. The ruling party instead has proven to the world that it does not tolerate any political opposition and alternative by systematically eliminating opposition political parties from political game, and by fully controlling the federal parliament. HRLHA fears that the political route that has been taken by EPRDF government will completely jeopardize the democratization process and escalate political violence and instability in the country. HRLHA expressed its concerns over the absence of political changes and improvements following the election in Ethiopia in its press release No 6,2010.
Today Ethiopia is at the top in the list of countries with the highest record of violating fundamental freedoms and human rights of its citizen. Ethiopian government’s worst human rights record has been criticised by international human rights organisations, including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and others. Western Governments and agencies including EU and US state department and United Nations Human Rights Council have expressed their deep concerns regarding the human rights violations in Ethiopia.
The Ethiopian government is known to have been committing all forms of human rights violations including mass and arbitrary arrests and detentions, extra-judicial killings, kidnappings and disappearances, detentions without trial, politically motivated death penalties, tortures, displacements, and etc. As a result, in the past 19 years, hundreds of thousands of Oromos and members of other nationalities have been killed, arrested and imprisoned indefinitely, kidnapped and disappeared, sentenced to death and life in prison; and thousands have fled to neighboring Horn of African countries to save their lives. But, national boundaries are not preventing the Ethiopian EPRFD Government from chasing those refugees and harassing and intimidating them even in those neighbouring countries.
Today many Oromos farmers and other nationalities are landless. Their land was given to the transnational corporations and rich governments like Saud Arabia, South Korea and others without the consent of and compensations to the land owners. Many Oromo farmers who opposed to such irresponsible and unjust actions of the government are in prison. HRLHA has presented the effects and consequences of the land grab in Oromia at 13th Session UN human Rights Council.
During the fiscal year 2009/2010, HRLHA has documented more human rights violations committed in the Horn of Africa than the two previous years; and has submitted documents on human rights abuses in Ethiopia to the UN Human Rights Council at different times.
As in the previous years, lack of adequate financial resource has been HRLHA’s biggest challenge to monitor and cover the wide ranging human rights violations in that region. This problem was reflected specially in deploying sufficient man power to the region to monitor, investigate and report on human rights abuses that are committed in various forms. In 2009/2010 fiscal year, the attempts made to organize some kind of fundraising activities such as the “Night for Human Rights” in order to solve this financial problem was not encouraging. The insufficient fund for the job has imposed a significant amount of pressures on the individuals that are directly involved in HRLHA’s day-to-day activities. HRLHA call up on all its members and supporters to take this problem seriously and work on it.
In the last two HRLHA annual activity reports, we mentioned that the success achieved with very limited financial resource was the result of the commitments and dedications of the staff members and the founders. This fact has remained the same also during this third fiscal year.
Summary of 2009/2010 Developments and a Look Ahead to 2011
2009/2010 was a successful year for HRLHA, and the successes undoubtedly indicate that HRLHA has become one of human rights defenders that could effectively monitor and report on human rights abuses in the Horn of Africa. Major successes and achievements for HRLHA in 2009/2010 include:
1. Advocating for and Defending Human Rights
1.1 Organizational Structure and Reporting on Human Rights Abuses
In this 3rd fiscal year, as in the two previous years, HRLHA’s activities were mainly focused on monitoring and covering the human rights violations. To this effect, we maintained the structure of the organization in all countries in the sub-region. In addition, going beyond our target region, we continued to work on the widespread human rights abuses committed in Yemen against refugees from countries like Ethiopia, Somalia, Djibouti, and Eritrea.
Countries of the Horn and the Republic of Yemen have similar attitude towards asylum seekers coming from the neighboring countries in search of protection. In violation of Universal Declaration of Human Rights, articles 13 and 14, which guarantee the freedom of movement and the right to seek and to enjoy asylum in other countries, these countries fail to protect fundamental human rights of the asylum seekers in their territories. They instead intimidate asylum seekers by denying them even shelters and, in some cases, handing them over to the governments of their countries of origin. For example,
- More than 1500 Somalis, Oromos and Other nationals were deported from Puntland State of Somalia in July, 2010 alone to Ethiopia;
- The Republic of Yemen also deported more than 100 Oromo refugees only in 2010. HRLHA has expressed its concerns to those countries and to the world community about the human rights violations and the illegal or forcefully deportation of the refugees.
1.2. Networking and Relationships
It is one of HRLHA’s main objectives and strong believes to establish partnership with other similar organizations in order to strengthen its efforts of defending human rights. In the past three years, HRLHA’s head office has worked closely with other human rights organizations. Apart from networking and corresponding with those organizations for purposes of information dissemination, we have been able to develop relationships with UN human rights council head office, the UNHCR head offices, the EU human rights council, and with different governmental human rights agencies and offices. To be specific, in this 3rd fiscal year, we participated in three international conferences and presented five papers on issues relating to our underlying agenda and target on the Horn sub-region.
- In March 2010, HRLHA presented a paper on the opening of its branch office in London, UK on the “role of HRLHA in the Horn of Africa and its advocacy strategy”.
- 2. In March 2010, HRLHA presented a paper at the 13th session of UN Human Rights Council (Geneva March 1-26, 2010). The topic was: “Human Rights Situations in Ethiopia that Require the Council’s Attention”
- In March 2010, HRLHA presented another paper at the 13th session of UN Human Rights Council (Geneva March 1-26, 2010) under the title: “Massive Land Grabs and their Consequences in Sub-Saharan Africa Countries”.
- 4. In June 2010, HRLHA presented “ HRLHA’s REPORT ON IMPLEMENTATION OF THE ICCPR (COUNTRY – ETHIOPIA)” at the UN Human Rights Council 19th Session
- 5. In August 2010, HRLHA presented a paper at OSA conference on “Human Rights Abuse in Ethiopia, The Plight of Oromo Refugees in Somaliland, Puntland and Yemen”.
2. Opportunities and Challenges Ahead
Human rights situations in most parts of the world are never improving; and the task for human rights defenders is getting bigger and bigger. The major problem that HRLHA has been facing in accomplishing its objectives is the lack of adequate financial resource. HRLHA expects financial support from funders and individual donors. In an attempt to reach potential donors, HRLHA recently submitted to donors, through its head office, more than twenty applications for financial aid. We need all members of this organization to work very hard in this regard along with HRLHA office. We have laid down schedules for fund raising event in 2010 which will be announced soon. If every member of the organization does not work hard, the result will remain the same as in the past two years. We urge every member of this organization to do their part in this regard too. We believe problems could easily be solved if we join hands. For our financial problem, in the first place, the solution will be the efforts of our members.
In the past two fiscal years, we mentioned that the organization struggled a lot to survive from month to month. That remains the same. However, despite the financial problems we had, our reporters in five Horn of African countries like, Ethiopia, Djibouti, Sudan, Somalia, Somaliland, and Kenya have shown their continued commitment to contribute to the efforts of defending human rights by monitoring and reporting human rights violations on daily basis.
The financial challenges HRLHA has faced has also prevented the agency from having its own office and a well organized staff. It has also denied it the capacity to pay its reporters and other workers. Coping with these challenges requires a renewed readiness, determination and commitment of our staff, our reporters and our members.
3. Expenditure and Revenue
Expenditure and revenue of the organization are audited by our internal auditor based on the information obtained from the activities of the organization. The report on the Program Expenditures and Revenues of the consolidated year is attached to this report on separate page
Conclusion
Looking ahead to 2011, we will be working towards materializing HRLHA’s current programs and explore opportunities for new once. We believe our operation in the Horn of Africa should be wider, deeper and stronger as long as the violators of human rights continue their impunity against humanity. Therefore, for the next fiscal year, we need more commitment and dedication from all members and supporters.
In its three years operations under a very difficult situation, HRLHA has confirmed and proved it to others that our ideas can be translated in to practice and can produce results that could make a difference in the lives of the targeted defenseless peoples. We look forward to continuing with the quick march in 2011 fiscal year. We have to promise to ourselves once again to continue forward with courage.
“We Fight for Human Rights”
Thank you,
Garoma Wakessa; Executive Director
Toronto/ Canada, August 28, 2010
