Describing it as a “politically motivated’ move, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ethiopia criticized UN Human Rights Council’s (UNHRC) plan to hold a special session on Ethiopia.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ethiopia has issued statement protesting the decision of the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva to set a special session on Ethiopia on Friday. “The Ministry believes that it is a politically motivated move that deliberately ignored the Ethiopian government’s commitment that welcomed the findings of the UN-EHRC joint investigation report, and established a High-Level Inter-Ministerial Taskforce to implement the recommendations therein,” the Ministry said.
Ethiopia believes that what should have been a priority for the Council was the urgent task of investigating the violations of human rights and atrocities committed by the Tigray peoples Liberation Front (TPLF) terrorist group in the Afar and the Amhara Regional States,” it said.
It is recalled that the joint investigation of UNHRC and the independent Ethiopian Human Rights Council, has exposed TPLF’s involvement in grave human rights violations and mass killings of civilians, which amount to war crimes.
In addition, the latest two reports by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have also revealed summarily killings of civilians, rape and related grave human rights violations committed in Amhara regions of Ethiopia by TPLF, which is designated as a terrorist group by the Ethiopian Parliament.
Second Berlin Conference?
Even though reports revealing atrocities committed by TPLF have been coming out, no European country or a UN agency has been bold enough to publicly condemn the acts of the ‘terrorist group’.
Instead, some countries like Ireland continue to put pressure on the democratically elected Government led by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed tabling the internal affairs and development project of Ethiopia (Great Ethiopian Renaissance Dam – GERD) at UN Security council for about a dozen times.
ተጀምሯል
History is repeating itself as 🇪🇹 is facing injustice from nations it considers friends. has experienced similar uncalled for treatment during the fascist Italian invasion. The special session scheduled for the 17th of Dec. at the UN is infuriating#LeaveEthiopiaalone pic.twitter.com/JySQ8JCgM7— Suleiman Abdella (@SuleimanAbdell7) December 14, 2021
Following the announcement of the schedulled meeting by the Council, Ethiopians have launched a social media campaign protesting Western countries double standard and meddling oin the internal affairs of Ethiopia and Africa in general.
The signed leaked document shared on social media also shows that no African country within the United Nation has agreed on the need to have the special session on Ethiopia at the UN Human Rights Council meeting scheduled for Friday.
Now the Un Human Rights Council is planning to have a special session on Ethiopia this Friday without involvement of a single African country out of 55 independent nations in what is labeled by some critics as, ‘the second Berlin Conference for the scramble of Africa’.
“In order for a special session to be convened, the support of one-third of the 47 members of the Council – 16 or more – is required. The request was supported thus far by the following States Members of the Council: (17) Austria, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Denmark, Fiji, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, Poland, Marshall Islands, Republic of Korea, Ukraine, United Kingdom and Uruguay,” according to UN Human Rights Council website post.
“The request was also supported thus far by the following observer States: (36) Albania, Australia, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica*, Croatia, Cyprus, Ecuador, Estonia, Finland, Greece, Honduras, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Monaco, Montenegro, New Zealand, North Macedonia, Norway, Paraguay, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and the United States,” it said.
Harassment of Ethiopia
The Spokesperson of the Ministry Ambassador Dina Mufti, during his briefing on Tuesday has also stated that Intensive lobbying to harass Ethiopia continued.
“The recent calls to “Evacuate Soon” failed. Now some corners are lobbying for relocating conferences destined to be held in Addis Ababa. In this regard, some forces are pushing ITU to relocate its conference in Addis Ababa that was scheduled to be held in June. The same entities are trying to relocate the AU summit that will be held in Addis Ababa in 2022,” Ambassador Dina said.
Peace and security in Africa
Ethiopia has participated in the 8th High-Level Seminar on Peace and Security in Africa in Oran, Algeria. The seminar brought together Ethiopia, in its capacity as Chair of the PSC for the month of December 2021, Niger and Tunisia, as outgoing A3 Members and Ghana and Gabon, as incoming A3 members, and PSC Members, and partners.
Demeke Mekonnen, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of Ethiopia and Chairperson of the PSC for the Month, spoke on the expectation of Africans from member states representing them in the UNSC. Accordingly, he commended the efforts of the outgoing A3 members for defending African common positions within the UN Security Council.
“Member states need to push for the implementation of true multilateralism within the UNSC. Member states have the responsibility to protest unilateral measures and undue interferences in the domestic affairs of sovereign states,” Demeke said.
He also recounted how Ethiopia was unfairly made a subject of various discussions in the Security Council. Speaking on the current situation in Ethiopia and Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Affairs Minister Demeke said, “the people and government of Ethiopia are capable of solving the conflict by applying their wisdom and the Pan African spirit of solving African Problems by Africans,” according to Ambassador Dina’s media briefing on Tuesday.