The African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights recently made the decision to terminate its Commission of Inquiry on the Situation in the Tigray Region, demonstrating a lack of political will to remain engaged.

Source Foreign Affairs

Don’t Let Ethiopia off the Hook

Restoring Washington’s ties with Addis Ababa must not come at the expense of justice and accountability for human rights violations.

By Kate Hixon, the advocacy director for Africa at Amnesty International USA, and Kehinde A. Togun, the managing director for public engagement at Humanity United.

JULY 10, 2023, 4:00 PM

Eight months after warring parties signed the Cessation of Hostilities Agreement in Ethiopia, the United States is eager to reengage in a full bilateral relationship with the Ethiopian government. According to a congressional notification seen by FP, the U.S. Treasury Department last month “determined that Ethiopia no longer is engaging in a pattern of gross violations of human rights.”

Indeed, there is now a danger that the U.S. government is willing to deprioritize justice and accountability for the survivors of the conflict in exchange for a close relationship with Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s government.

The cessation agreement, signed in November 2022 between the Ethiopian government and Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), came after two years of fighting that left hundreds of thousands dead from direct conflict and hundreds of thousands more dead from lack of access to food and medicine. While the conflict received significantly less media attention, the death toll may be even higher than that in Ukraine.

Following the agreement, the situation has improved for civilians, with desperately needed humanitarian aid and a restoration of services such as banking and telecommunications arriving in parts of Tigray. Nonetheless, human rights violations remain ongoing in Tigray, as well as in Oromia and Amhara. Just last month, Human Rights Watch reported that local authorities and Amhara forces continued to expel Tigrayans.

No doubt, the atrocities have been perpetrated by multiple parties, including forces from the Ethiopian federal government, the TPLF, and the neighboring Eritrean Defense Forces—which was not a party to the cessation agreement. The international community is solely focused on Tigray, however, while largely ignoring tensions in other areas of Ethiopia, to the detriment of civilians in those regions. For example, in April 2023, Amnesty International raised concerns regarding journalists being detained amid rising violence and mass arrests in the Amhara region.

The peace agreement’s success greatly depends on the United States effectively using its leverage to advocate for justice and accountability.

Nevertheless, it’s worth acknowledging that in many parts of the continent, accountability to—and for—people who have suffered human rights harms and abuses is sorely lacking. In fact, the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights recently made the decision to terminate its Commission of Inquiry on the Situation in the Tigray Region, demonstrating a lack of political will to remain engaged. Consequently, as the agreement enters the implementation phase, its success greatly depends on the United States effectively using its leverage, along with the rest of the international community, to advocate for justice and accountability.

U.S. influence on Ethiopia remains strong. Although Washington recently halted the provision of food aid to Ethiopia, the United States continues to be the largest humanitarian aid donor to Ethiopia. Ethiopia also greatly benefited from being a trading partner under the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA)—a designation that was revoked during the protracted war with TPLF. The Ethiopian government is keen to once again have its products receive duty-free access to U.S. market goods through AGOA. However, in its revocation, the United States notes that before reinstatement, the Ethiopian government must first meet clear benchmarks toward the “gross violations of internationally recognized human rights” it has perpetrated.

In 2022, the Biden administration released a new U.S.-Africa strategy document, calling for equal partnership with the continent in tackling both regional and global challenges. However, critics of the strategy have rightly highlighted the inherent tension between the administration’s rhetoric of supporting human rights and its silence when some of its African partners may be contravening those same human rights principles. On Ethiopia, for example, the administration could have actively encouraged the AU to act with greater urgency. The AU was silent throughout the conflict in northern Tigray, even in the face of clear war crimes and crimes against humanity documented by leading human rights organizations.

To live up to its espoused values, the United States must be willing to take more of a principled and prominent role in its partnership with the AU to ensure both Ethiopia and the TPLF are meeting their obligations. The international community, led by the African Union and the United States, must insist that the agreement be complemented with substantive efforts to pursue justice and accountability for and with survivors of the war. The current crisis unfolding in Sudan exemplifies what happens when the international community focuses on the immediate cessation of violence at the expense of real accountability.

Resolution on the termination of the mandate of the Commission of Inquiry on the Situation in the Tigray Region of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia – ACHPR/Res.556 (LXXV) 2023

Source: African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights

Resolution on the termination of the mandate of the Commission of Inquiry on the Situation in the Tigray Region of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia – ACHPR/Res.556 (LXXV) 2023

 Jun 13, 2023

The African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (the Commission), meeting at its 75th Ordinary Session, held from 3 to 23 May 2023, in Banjul, the Gambia:

Recalling its mandate to promote and protect human and peoples’ rights in Africa, under Article 45 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights;

Considering the correspondence of the Chairperson of the African Union Commission, H.E Mr. Moussa Faki Mahamat, dated 16 March 2021, informing the Commission of the willingness expressed by the Government of Ethiopia to engage the Commission to undertake investigations jointly with the Ethiopian National Human Rights Commission, into the ongoing crisis in the Tigray Region, at the meeting of the Peace and Security Council of the African Union, held on 9 March 2021, and inviting the Commission to consider  a self -initiated investigation;

Recalling Resolution ACHPR/Res. 482 (EXT.OS/XXXII) 2021 on the Fact-Finding Mission to the Tigray Region of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia; 

Further Recalling Resolutions ACHPR/Res. 487 (EXT.OS/XXXIV) 2021; ACHPR/Res. 494 (LXIX) 2021, ACHPR/Rés. 512(LXX) 2022; ACHPR/Res. 521 (LXXII) 2022 and ACHPR/Res.549 (EXT.OS/ XXXVI)2023, renewing the Mandate of the Commission of Inquiry on the Situation in the Tigray Region of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, and ACHPR/Res.518 (LXXI) Resolution on the Renewal of the Mandate and Expansion of the Composition of the Commission of Inquiry on the Situation in the Tigray Region of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia;

Welcoming the signing of the Agreement for Lasting Peace through a Permanent Cessation of Hostilities between the Government of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), on 2nd November 2022, in Pretoria, the Republic of South Africa; 

Further Welcoming the measures taken by the Government of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia to adopt an inclusive and comprehensive national transitional justice policy, centered on accountability, truth seeking, redress for victims, and reconciliation and healing, in line with the Constitution of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, and the African Union’s (AU) 2019 Transitional Justice Policy (AUTJP); 

Considering the positive developments in the Tigray Region of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, particularly in restoring peace and security, reconciliation, disarmament, demobilization and rehabilitation, and the designing of a transitional justice policy to ensure accountability;

Recognizing the importance of the national processes put in place by the Government of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia to address the situation in the country and ensure accountability and redress for reported cases of human rights violations in the Tigray region, which offer prospects for a national, inclusive and sustainable approach to addressing the situation in the country and taking adaptive measures; 

The Commission:
1.Decides to terminate the mandate of the Commission of Inquiry on the Situation in the Tigray Region of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, effective from 23rd May 2023;
2.Decides to support, once established, the transitional justice process which will allow the consolidation of peace and reconciliation in the country and, on the basis of the principle of responsibility, will help the victims to obtain reparation;
3.Urges the Ethiopian authorities and the PTLF to respect and effectively implement the 2022 Agreement, and to take the necessary measures to preserve stability, and peace and security in the country, especially in the Tigray Region, through constructive dialogue and consensus.
4.Urges both parties to take the necessary steps to preserve stability, peace and security and respect for human rights in the country, particularly in the Tigray Region, through constructive dialogue and consensus;
5.Continues to monitor the general human rights situation in the country 

Done in Banjul, on 23rd May 2023.