It has been over a decade since the Human Rights League of the Horn of Africa (HRLHA) was established on May 5, 2007, by the prominent members of the Human Rights League (HRL) previously established in Ethiopia in 1996, but silenced by the EPRDF government at its infant stage in 1997. To define the role of HRLHA as a human rights organization was not difficult for most of us because we have experienced the horrors of the Ethiopian prison system and seen how the appointed judges were abusing the justice system in our four years of prison life.
Establishing the Human Rights Organization was not a luxury but a prerequisite to saving lives from the hands of authoritarian governments. From the very beginning, most of us were very confident that HRLHA would play a decisive role in becoming a voice for the voiceless by exposing atrocities in the sub region of the Horn of Africa in general, and Ethiopia in particular. In the past 12 years, HRLHA has already shown that our ideas have translated into practice and produced important results. For our hard work on reporting human rights infringements in the Horn of Africa in general and in Ethiopia in particular. In recognition of our activities of monitoring and reporting on human rights issues and our contributions in the field, HRLHA was granted a Special Consultative Status by the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), one of the six major organs of the UN, as of July 2011. This enables the HRLHA, among other things, to actively engage with the ECOSOC and its subsidiary bodies as well as the United Nations Secretariat programs to present any kind of human rights violations in the Horn to the member states and to the UN Human Rights Commission- without limitation- to challenge the human rights abusers.
Ethiopia: HRLHA’s Contribution in Exposing the EPRDF’s government Gross Human Rights Abuses in the past
For over a decade, as human rights defenders, we made a full commitment to address human rights infringements in Ethiopia on behalf of the victimized individuals and groups in the country. We demanded that the government of Ethiopia protect civil and political rights, protect and realize the economic, social and cultural rights of the citizens enshrined in international human rights treaties it signed and ratified, as well as enforcing human rights in the 1995 Ethiopian constitution.
However, the Ethiopian authorities turned a deaf ear to HRLHA’s appeal and other human rights organizations and continued gross human rights violations over twenty-seven years without any improvement. The HRLHA has gathered human rights violations information, such as arbitrary arrests and detentions, forceful disappearances, torture, summary executions, rape, land grabs and forced evictions, etc. and compiled its findings and disseminated them to different governmental agencies such as the UN, EU, AU, several donor governmental foreign departments (USA, UK, Canada, Sweden, Norway and others) expressing its concerns about human rights violations in Ethiopia. In addition, the HRLHA has actively participated in different international human rights meetings, workshops, UN Human Rights Council Sessions and presented oral statements on atrocities committed by the government of Ethiopia against civilians and submitted several written documents on human rights violation issues. Almost all work in the past has been done with just a few committed staff members of HRLHA and with big sacrifices from our reporters in Ethiopia and the neighboring countries such as Kenya, Sudan, S Sudan Djibouti, Somalia, and Uganda.
We always believed that every individual citizen is responsible for protecting his/her rights from any violators of human rights, including governments. This could happen only when citizens are aware of their entitlements and obligations. Educating citizens about their rights and obligations is fundamental to enabling them to identify their rights and obligations. We believe one of the significant actions undertaken by human rights defenders is the provision of human rights education.
The education activities could take the form of training for the application of human rights standards in the context of professional activities, for example by judges, lawyers, police officers, soldiers or human rights monitors. In other instances, education may be broader and involve teaching about human rights in schools and universities or disseminating information on human rights standards to the general public or to vulnerable populations. In the past several years of HRLHA’s activities educating people about human rights from a far has not been easy. We tried to provide online human rights education by creating a human rights education website (www.hrlhahumanrightseducation.org). We believe this website offered an opportunity to learn about human rights for those interested in human rights education.
All citizens living in a democracy have civil and political rights, which are usually articulated in a legal document as part of a constitution, such as a bill of rights. This document limits the powers of government, explains the freedoms that are guaranteed to all people and protects people from a government that might abuse its powers. A right is a legal entitlement or protected freedom. Rights are often fought for and claimed (in courts or through protests) and less often simply granted. With all rights come responsibilities. Responsibility is a duty or obligation. It is something we should do in order to respect and maintain certain rights. Unfortunately, in many countries of Africa including Ethiopia, human rights provisions are included in their constitutions as a mere empty formality to use as a tool for donation earning purposes from democratic states.
The Ethiopian Constitution of 1995, chapter 3, is comprised of 44 articles on human rights, which makes over 41% of the whole 11 chapters and 106 articles of the constitution. In addition, the EPRDF government has signed and ratified seven international human rights treaties from 1991-2014. However, the EPRDF government has contravened domestic and international human rights norms and committed crimes against humanity against its own people for over twenty-seven years. The HRLHA and other international human rights organizations have selflessly and tirelessly worked on exposing the heinous actions of the EPRDF government on international forums until the EPRDF government has been forced to bring about a slight change in its government by promising to the world to bring political reforms to the country.
Opportunities and Challenges Ahead
Human rights situations in most parts of Ethiopia are not improving, and the task for HRLHA is getting bigger and bigger. The major problem HRLHA has been facing over the past twelve years in accomplishing its objectives was and still is- a lack of adequate financial resources. Recently, the HRLHA is in the process of opening an office in Finfinne/Addis Ababa. For the new office in Finfinne/Addis Ababa, we elected a new board of directors comprised of nine members, and new staff members, including the new director. We need all members of this organization to work very hard along with HRLHA offices in Toronto and Kampala, Uganda. We urge every member and supporter of this organization to do their part and also work hard on how to bring in more new members to be part of the fight for human rights. We believe problems could easily be solved if we join hands.
Conclusion
Looking ahead to 2019/2020, we will be working to solidify HRLHA’s current programs and explore opportunities for new ones. We believe our operation in the Horn of Africa should be wider, deeper and stronger as long as human rights abusers continue their despicable acts against humanity. Therefore, in the next fight for human rights we need more commitment and dedication from all our members and supporters. In its twelve years of operations under very difficult circumstances, HRLHA has already shown that our ideas can be translated into practice and can produce important results. We look forward to continuing this work in the coming years to achieve our goals. We have to promise to ourselves once again to continue forward with courage.
“We Fight for Human Rights”
Garoma B. Wakessa; Director General, HRLHA
12 Years of Engagement in Defending Human Rights
