Articles

Select articles and academic papers relating to Human Rights and Ethiopia.

The Ethiopian Human Rights Council (EHRCO) is often severely condemned and vilified by the regime and its media. This is of course to be expected from such a regime, which wants the world; especially the west to believe all is right in Ethiopia. But the strange fact is that most western diplomats in Addis Ababa are collaborating with the regime to vilify EHRCO. The Ambassadors of Switzerland, of the United States of America and others have made pronouncements to the effect that EHRCO is politically oriented. In fact, the representatives of the diplomatic community in Addis Ababa made up of Canada, Switzerland and Norway discussed the matter with representatives of EHRCO twice. Their suggestion was that EHRCO remove the democratic process and the rule of law, from its three objectives and concentrate on individual human rights. In the interest of accuracy it must be stated that the Norwegian representative was not sure how the democratic process could be removed from human rights without affecting the over-all concern for human rights. Nevertheless, the Executive Committee of EHRCO seriously and sincerely re-examined its objectives in view of the suggestions of the diplomats. It decided to continue with its original objectives.

In this paper, an attempt is made, to define socio- economic development in elation to the rights of people. Based on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other UN Declarations and conventions ratified by Ethiopia, and the various laws of the country, including the current constitution of the Federal of Ethiopia, an assessment of the state of socio-economic development is made in relation to the questions of unemployment and its consequences, particularly those of children and youth, the educational condition, the health and nutritional status of the people and the housing condition in the country. All these problems are discussed and analyzed on the basis of available data generated by various governmental agencies, and some United Nations and international bodies operating in the country.

The main purpose of the paper is to reveal how the socio- economic policies of the EPRDF led Government are aggravating the socio-economic conditions of the people in Ethiopia.