Country Context
ETHIOPIA
Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed Ali’s rise to power in 2018 presented a beacon of hope for a just, peaceful, united Ethiopia. However, Ethiopia’s peacebuilding and transitional justice efforts have been jeopardized by an ongoing war for political control in the Tigray region between the federal government and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, whose leaders were displaced from power by Abiy’s administration.[i] A few months after the outbreak of war in November 2020, the conflict spread to Tigray’s neighboring states of Afar and Amhara. Ethnic-based targeting and mass atrocities have been an intentional strategy of the warring parties.[ii] In the past two years, crimes against humanity and war crimes such as murder, rape, sexual violence, forced pregnancies, persecution and other inhumane acts have been perpetrated with impunity.[iii] Since November 2020, as many as 600,000 civilians have died in the conflict—a third of those as a direct result of the government-imposed blockade.[iv] According to a joint report by Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, the conflict violence in Western Tigray Zone amounted to crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing.[v]
A “cessation of hostilities” agreement was finally signed in November 2022 between the Ethiopian federal government and Tigrayan authorities. Government allied forces have since withdrawn from Ethiopia’s Amhara region, and rebel armed groups began handing in their heavy weapons as part of the agreement.[i] The restoration of services such as electricity, banking, telecommunication and flights began right after the ceasefire agreement in Tigray.[ii]
The nine-page agreement includes a clause on transitional justice policy,[iii] but human rights advocates have pointed out that it “lacks details on formal accountability” and “does not explicitly mention the situation for civilians in Western Tigray zone, the site of the ethnic cleansing campaign.”[iv] The end of hostilities will depend on a legitimate accountability of human rights violations from all sides, the full disarmament of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front and addressing the ongoing presence of Eritrean soldiers in the Tigray region, still present as of May 2023.[v]
Memory
The monuments, memorials and museums that exist to document the experiences of victims of past atrocities in Ethiopia mostly advance the historical narratives of specific communities. A brief wave of reform in 2018 opened pathways for survivors of human rights violations to share their experiences with the public. The government directed state-owned media to document and broadcast the voices of survivors of human rights violations, among other progressive steps. As a result, documentary films were produced focusing on the experiences of political prisoners. Critics have warned, however, that these efforts were intended to discredit the previous administration rather than prevent the recurrence of violence.[i]
These criticisms are reinforced by the fact that only some victims’ narratives are being shared publicly. This is consistent with the practice of previous ruling parties in Ethiopia, which have frequently prevented political opposition from using conventional media outlets to discuss past injustices. For instance, the previous ruling party, the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front, routinely suppressed opposition parties and the ethnic communities from which they arose, including the Oromo Liberation Front, Ogaden National Liberation Front and Ginbot 7.[ii]
Justice
Following the positive developments in 2018, Ethiopia’s transitional justice process remains fragile. For example, the Ethiopian Reconciliation Commission (ERC), established in 2018 to “maintain peace, justice, national unity and consensus and also reconciliation among Ethiopian peoples,”[i] was dissolved in March 2022 without fulfilling its mandate.[ii] The Council of Ministers established a disarmament and reintegration program and created a National Peace Council in late 2022, but these institutions are still in preliminary stages.[iii]
The ERC was replaced by the National Dialogue Commission (NDC), established by Parliament in late 2021, which is tasked with consulting with various segments of society to identify the root causes of conflict and recommend themes for a future dialogue. The NDC spent 2022 conducting preparatory activities, held consultations on the agenda with religious leaders, civil society, community elders and various stakeholders in January 2023 and planned to begin the national dialogue itself in May 2023.[iv] It is not yet clear whether the NDC will have sufficient resources, independence and capacity to fulfill its truth-seeking and truth-telling objectives.
The national dialogue must also overcome inclusivity challenges. The NDC was criticized by many parties for failing to properly include women, youth, civil society and key ethnic stakeholders in its initial formative consultations.[v] Only three of the 11 final commissioners were women.[vi] Additionally, the Tigrayan government, an essential stakeholder in the national dialogue for peace and security, was excluded from the preliminary consultations.[vii] Observers are also alarmed by recent comments by NDC’s chief commissioner that “armed groups could join the national dialogue if and only if they are willing to put down their guns,” given the ongoing violence from the Oromo Liberation Army.[viii]
In addition to formal national efforts such as the NDC, Ethiopia also has a number of traditional dispute-resolution and justice-providing practices. Communities have rich, long-standing forms of traditional justice led by elders, spiritual leaders and “relative judges” based on clan kinships. These include jaarsumma in the Oromo community and yezemed dagna in the Amhara society.[ix] Disputants within these systems can have their complaints heard by community elders up to more senior councils who are empowered through customary practice to mediate and issue orders for punishment or reparations.[x] Women are represented and also explicitly empowered to defend their interests within some of these systems.[xi]
Education
The government of Ethiopia supports formal and non-formal education[1] initiatives to make education available to as many people as possible.[i] Some of these initiatives seek to address past inequities. For instance, Addis Ababa city government approved teaching of Afaan Oromoo and Amharic as supplementary languages in January 2023.[ii] School curricula do give an overview of the nation’s history, but do not sufficiently capture the full history of conflict in contemporary Ethiopia. This means that the perspectives of victims from some communities are excluded and students do not have the opportunity to discuss the realities of the past. Experience has shown that social cohesion and national unity come only after confronting the past openly. Additionally, recent events have raised new barriers to accessing education. The destruction of public infrastructure in Tigray and other parts of the country, including primary and secondary schools, has deprived all children in those regions of access to schooling.[iii]
Recommendations
The government of Ethiopia should depart from past practices and make efforts to share narratives from a variety of victim communities through both conventional media and new memorial initiatives.
International organizations and the diplomatic community supporting Ethiopia’s transitional justice process should work with the government of Ethiopia and Ethiopian civil society to ensure that the NDC has the resources and independence necessary to fulfill its truth-telling mandate.
International organizations and Ethiopian civil society should develop supplementary educational materials about Ethiopia’s recent history that incorporate perspectives from all victim communities.
The Ethiopian government should provide full access to international humanitarian scrutiny and assistance in regions affected by the two years of recent conflict, including independent monitors such as the International Commission of Human Rights Experts on Ethiopia.
Notes
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