Ethiopia prepares for the upcoming Human Rights Committee review in October
Published on 30 Sep 2022, 02:48 PM
The second Human Rights Committee review of Ethiopia will take place in October 2022
CCPR-Centre visit to Ethiopia
On 7, 8, and 9 of September 2022, the Centre conducted a visit to Ethiopia in view of the Human Rights Committee review on its 136th session. The Centre carried out a preparatory mission to inform civil society, to coordinate their engagement and to support the drafting of reports.
In preparation of that visit, the Centre organized a series of two online information sessions about the UN Human Rights Committee and the upcoming review of Ethiopia. These sessions were specifically targeted to civil society working on a range of issues related to civil and political rights.
After these sessions, the coalition worked on the preparation of the report remotely. Làzarie Eeckeloo, Human Rights Officer at the Centre, then traveled to Addis Ababa to continue the collaboration. The aim of the workshop was to finalize the draft of the report and to coordinate the priorities for the advocacy strategy in Geneva.
Ethiopia is confronted with many challenges regarding the protection of human rights: there are ongoing conflicts and tensions between communities, resulting in a high number of internally displaced persons (IDPs), civic space is shrinking, there are high numbers of violence and discrimination against women, and these are only a few examples.
National consultation
The consultation was organized by the Centre, in partnership with the Consortium of Ethiopian Human Rights Organisations, and started with a recap of the review process by the Human Rights Committee and civil society participation in that process. Then the draft of the report was presented, which allowed the participants to see where information was lacking and what needed to be updated. In those discussions, there was a focus on both information provided to the Committee about the current human rights situation in the country, and on the formulation of suggested recommendations. After the discussions on the content of the report ended, the Centre provided more detailed information about the briefings.
Outcomes of the activities
CCPR-Centre visit to Ethiopia
The Coalition submitted a comprehensive report to the Human Rights Committee, undersigned by the following organisations: Consortium of Ethiopian Human Rights Organisations (CEHRO), Ethiopian Human Rights Council (EHRCO), Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR), Centre for Justice (CJ), Association for Human Rights in Ethiopia (AHRE), Vision Ethiopia Congress for Democracy (VECOD), Ethiopian Labour Rights Watch (ELRW), Ethiopian Lawyers Disability Association (ELDA), Federation of Ethiopian Association of Persons with Disabilities (FEAPD), Ethiopian Women Rights Watch, Inclusive Vision for Democratic Ethiopia (IVIDE) and World Organization Against Torture (OMCT).
Next steps
The Human Rights Committee review of the State report will take place on October 17 and 18, 2022, in Palais Wilson, Geneva. You can follow live here.
The coalition will participate in the formal and informal briefings to share their concerns with the members of the Human Rights Committee.
Following the consideration of the State report in October 2022, the Committee will adopt the Concluding Observations, which will contain recommendations addressed to the State to better implement the ICCPR.
