The Human Rights Commission of Ethiopia:Challenges and Prospects in Promoting and Protecting Human Rights

Abstract

Since 2018, Ethiopia is the leading country, with more than two million numbers of internally displaced peoples (IDP) from different parts of the country. Public demonstrations began around 2016 in Oromia and Amhara regional states are continued which pave the way for ethnic clashes and atrocities, and this worsen the situation of human rights in the country. It is difficult to get information about the situation of human rights in Ethiopia. The incumbent government threatened local civil societies and denied access to information for international human right organizations. The objective of this paper is to assess the challenges and opportunities of the Ethiopian Human Right Commission in its role of promoting and protection of human rights. To do so, data was mainly collected from secondary sources, like books, articles, reports, newspapers and research outputs. Qualitative data analysis, document analysis and interpretation were employed. The findings show that the Commission is marred by political influences, less accessibility, limited awareness of people towards human rights, poor culture of respect for human rights, lack of democratic tradition and good governance, weak institutions like the media and the tighten rule governs civil societies, are among the major hurdles limiting the effectiveness of the Commission. Ethiopia’s member of different conventions for human rights like, CCPR, ICESCR, ICERD, CEDAW, CRC and the establishment of the local civil society (EHRCO), though not free from impairments from the ruling party, can be mentioned as some prospects if they are used for better outcomes.

Keywords: Human Rights, Promotion, Protection, Challenges, HRCE

DOI: 10.7176/DCS/10-6-05

Publication date:June 30^th 2020