The Ethiopian Human Rights Commission published its annual report on Wednesday, July 12th, in which it hails some “positive developments” but deplores a “civic space” which has been reduced. This public institution, whose statutes provide for independence, denounces in particular arbitrary arrests, cases of torture, and enforced disappearances.
The most serious human rights violations in Ethiopia continue to be “enforced disappearances”. In the capital, Addis Ababa, in Oromiya or Amhara, one can be arrested at home or work, “without a court order or arrest warrant”, says the Commission.
However, the living conditions of the detainees have generally improved, says the Commission, even if the “inhuman and degrading treatment” is still in “significant” quantity. The Commission also welcomes “the relative peace” in Tigray and the preparations for a “transitional justice” process.
For the rest, the report remains critical of the proliferation of checkpoints and curfews, the harassment and arrests of journalists, political activists, and also associations, as well as the blocking of social networks, all of this being, according to the Commission, “a shrinking civic space”.
The report also remains critical of the violence against civilians “a bit everywhere in Ethiopia” and for example in the crossfire of the rebellion and the army, in Oromiya, as well as in Amhara, since the announcement, in April, of the dissolution of the regional militias.