EHRC calls on UN Human Rights Council to encourage ongoing independent investigations in Ethiopia

Addis Ababa, December 16, 2021 (FBC) – The Commission calls on the HUN Human Rights Council to support the implementation of the joint investigation recommendations and to encourage ongoing independent investigations in Ethiopia

In a letter addressed to the President of the United Nations Human Rights Council (HRC), Madam Nazhat Khan, and to members of the HRC, as well as Michelle Bachelet, High Commissioner, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission (EHRC) said setting up a new body to investigate the entire period since 3 November 2021 is repetitive, counterproductive to ongoing implementation processes, and further delays redress for victims and survivors.

Rather than repeating the same process, the letter said, the next step should have been rehabilitation, restitution, and compensation, as well as prosecution of the perpetrators.

According to the letter, the proposal to set up a new investigative body would give parties to the conflict which have not yet acknowledged responsibility and taken steps to implement the JIT recommendations an option to reject the report in light of new investigations; and it may have the effect of undermining the work and voice of independent human rights institutions such as the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission.