Oakland Institute and the Housing and Land Rights Network Submit Human Rights Report on Ethiopia to the United Nations
OAKLAND CA- In a report submitted to the UN Human Rights Council’s
Universal Periodic Review (UPR) on September 15, 2013, the Oakland
Institute and the Housing and Land Rights Network outlined the human
rights and international law violations perpetrated by the government of
Ethiopia in the name of country’s development strategy.
Drawing
clear links between recorded testimonies on the ground and breaches of
specific international covenants and articles in Ethiopia’s
constitution, the joint submission to the UN Human Rights Council also
responds to Ethiopia’s draft National Human Rights Action Plan for
2013-2015. “Rather than working to build a development strategy grounded
in human rights, the Ethiopian government is attempting to hoodwink its
human rights record, leaving unmentioned its villagization program and
the Anti-Terrorism Proclamation-both used by the government as
significant justifications for forced resettlement, arbitrary
detentions, and politically motivated arrests,” said Anuradha Mittal,
Executive Director of the Oakland Institute.
As previous Oakland
Institute reports have chronicled, the Ethiopian government’s efforts to
clear land for large-scale foreign investment has entailed widespread
violations of human, social, economic, and political rights. Violations
of citizen’s rights to self-determination, housing, land for subsistence
production, and free political association–enshrined in the Ethiopian
constitution, the Rural Land Administration and Land Use Proclamation,
and in United Nations international covenants–are carried out in the
name of development.
The joint UPR submission suggests that the
ruling party’s ability to implement country’s unpopular villagization
program rests in its monopoly on force and dominance over the allocation
of humanitarian assistance. “Authoritarian governance and the methods
used in implementing development projects have combined to violate human
rights to livelihood and culture for land-based peoples, especially in
the peripheral regions,” said Joseph Schechla, Coordinator of the
Housing and Land Rights Network. “Involuntary resettlement, a form of
forced evictions, accompanies deprivation of the right to food,
including the right to feed oneself, particularly for agropastoralists.
On the other hand, the ability to control information and stifle dissent
has enabled the ruling party to present a positive face to the
international community, which has dubbed Ethiopia a nation in
“renaissance”, he continued.
The joint submission presents
undeniable evidence that should compel the international community to
advocate for a human rights centered development strategy that would
benefit all Ethiopians.
Download the joint Oakland Institute/HIC-HLRN submission
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