Issue No. 154

 
On February 15, 2023, the Deputy Prime Minister of Ethiopia and Foreign Affairs Minister, Demeke Mekonnen Hassen, told the Executive Council of the African Union (AU) that the mandate of the International Commission of Human Rights Experts on Ethiopia (ICHREE) was an obstacle to the AU-led peace process and implementation of the Pretoria Peace Agreement. He also announced his plan to table a resolution calling not just for ICHREE’s de-funding, as was put to a vote by UN member states on 31 December, but for its mandate to be terminated altogether.
 
In fact, a delegation of Ethiopian government officials has been very active in Geneva lobbying member countries of the Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights (OHCHR) meeting from 27 February to 4 April for the 52nd regular session of the Human Rights Council.
 
Ethiopia’s brandishing the peace agreement is deceptive. Nothing has been done on accountability, victim support, or the search for truth since the Cessation of Hostilities Agreement (CoHA) was signed in Pretoria. Although fighting has technically ceased in Tigray, this does not mean there is peace in Tigray. Eritrean troops remain in the region and continue to commit crimes. Above all, no lasting peace can be achieved without some form of accountability. 
 
While the Ethiopian National Defense Force (ENDF) is suspected of war crimes, the traumatized people of Tigray are being asked to place themselves under the protection of those who at the very least symbolize their former aggressors. Women gang-raped by soldiers, who can no longer see a uniform without being re-traumatized, are expected to trust Ethiopian soldiers. They cannot just sweep this dirt under the carpet and return to business as usual. The embers of conflict are not extinguished, and the flames of renewed conflict are smoldering. Resentment feeds on injustice.
 
But the international community appears satisfied with empty promises of justice without guarantees or verification.
 
Hypocrisy and double standards must cease. Western states and their allies have stood shoulder to shoulder to defend Ukrainians. Their inaction in the face of the destruction of Tigray will remain a historical disgrace, a moral stain that sets a dangerous precedent of abandoning a population persecuted by the very government elected to protect it. Not to mention, Ethiopia remains allied with the notorious Eritrean regime of Isaias Afwerki, yesterday's enemy, whose troops were invited into another sovereign territory to perpetrate war crimes.
 
The world-- not only the West-- must stop limiting its interventions in Africa to its economic interests alone. The Tigray war is the deadliest conflict of this century, led by a government with a seat at the UN. The UN Security Council must be held to its “responsibility to protect populations from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity."
 
Adopted by all UN member states at the 2005 World Summit, Responsibility to Protect (R2P) allows the international community to intervene when a state fails to protect its own population. R2P is a duty of humanity; those who oppose it in the name of national sovereignty are always among the oppressors. 
 
Ask a journalist arbitrarily imprisoned if human rights are a western construct. Ask a victim of ethnic discrimination or a parent whose son or daughter has been disappeared or forcibly enlisted if they accept their fate because human rights are relative, a notion imposed by the west. The answer will be a resounding no; human rights are universal. The shield of sovereignty has become a license to kill with impunity. Authoritarian states do what they want without consequence.
 
Neither Ethiopia nor Eritrea has signed the Rome Statute, so it is complicated to refer the case of Tigray to the International Criminal Court (ICC). On the other hand, Haile Selassie did sign and ratify the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide in 1949. An international mechanism such as the ICC for the former Yugoslavia could help to ensure justice. However, no matter which mechanism is chosen, there must be an investigation. The obstructions of Abiy Ahmed’s government thwart justice; if the mandate of the ICHREE is terminated it would set a frightening precedent. There can be no justice without investigation.