Ethiopia: Amnesty Int’l says state of emergency worsens rights violations

ESAT News (February 22, 2017)

Amnesty International said in its annual report that the martial law declared by the Ethiopian regime in october last year has been used to further its human rights violations against citizens.

In 2016, the rights group says, anti-government protesters were met with lethal force and arrest and torture has continued against dissents.

“Prolonged protests over political, economic, social and cultural grievances were met with excessive and lethal force by police. The crackdown on the political opposition saw mass arbitrary arrests, torture and other ill-treatment, unfair trials and violations of the rights to freedom of expression and association. On 9 October, the government announced a state of emergency, which led to further human rights violations,” Amnesty said in the report.

Although authorities introduced “reforms” to calm the protests especially in the Oromo and Amhara regions, they have failed to address the root causes of grievances, the report said adding that “After the state of emergency was declared in October, protests subsided but human rights violations increased.”

The report said by the end of the year 2016, security forces killed at least 800 people since the protest began in November 2015. Local opposition parties however put the number at 1500.

Amnesty said the regime has continued violation of rights and extrajudicial killings with impunity while at the same time rejecting calls by the international community for independent investigations. “The government rejected calls by the UNHCR, the UN refugee agency, and the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights for independent and impartial investigations of human rights violations committed in the context of protests in various regional states.”

Globally, Amnesty warned that “Politicians wielding a toxic, dehumanizing ‘us vs them’ rhetoric are creating a more divided and dangerous world.”

“Divisive fear-mongering has become a dangerous force in world affairs. Whether it is Trump, Orban, Erdoğan or Duterte, more and more politicians calling themselves anti-establishment are wielding a toxic agenda that hounds, scapegoats and dehumanizes entire groups of people. Today’s politics of demonization shamelessly peddles a dangerous idea that some people are less human than others, stripping away the humanity of entire groups of people. This threatens to unleash the darkest aspects of human nature.”

The report, The State of the World’s Human Rights, delivers the most comprehensive analysis of the state of human rights around the world, covering 159 countries.