FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF ETHIOPIA

World Report 2001 Entry

World Report 2000 Entry

World Report 1999 Entry

World Report 1998 Entry

Ethiopia- The Curtailment of Rights
With the legacy of the Derg behind it, the EPRDF proclaimed, as it instituted a four-year transitional period (1991-1995), its commitment to democratization and respect for the rule of law and pledged to establish human rights in the country. The transitional legislature ratified the major international human rights treaties. The constitution of today's Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia offers detailed basic human rights guarantees and provides for the incorporation into domestic laws of all the human rights treaties to which Ethiopia is party. New laws were enacted that guarantee the respect of human rights and civil liberties, institute the independence of the judiciary and the press, and provide for multipartyism and free universal suffrage, theoretically allowing the convening of competitive elections for the first time in the country's history. Upon taking power in 1991, the EPRDF actively promoted a policy of ethnic federalism that influenced the subsequent constitutional, political, and administrative restructuring of the country. At the same time, it moved effectively to dominate the political system by favoring regional parties affiliated with it and clamping down on opposition and civil society groups. The emerging contours of the political scene generated a particular set of human rights problems.
(A908) 12/97, 54pp., $7.00
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Reckoning Under the Law
In 1991, the government of former President Mengistu was overthrown by the military forces of the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front and the Eritrean People's Liberation Front, ending 17 years of repressive rule. The Mengistu government was responsible for torturing, murdering or disappearing tens of thousands of Ethiopians from 1974 to 1991. In 1994, we investigated the process established by the Transitional Government of Ethiopia to bring former officials of the Mengistu regime to justice for these human rights violations, believing that this process of accountability is essential to the building of democratic institutions in Ethiopia.
(A611) 12/94, 38 pp., $5.00/£2.95
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EVIL DAYS:
Thirty Years of War and Famine in Ethiopia
For the past thirty years under both Emperor Haile Selassie and President Mengistu Haile Mariam, Ethiopia has suffered continuous war and intermittent famine until every single province has been affected by war to some degree. Evil Days documents the wide range of violations of basic human rights committed by all sides in the conflict, especially the Mengistu government's direct responsibility for the deaths of at least half a million Ethiopian civilians. The Ethiopian army and air force have killed tens of thousands of civilians. The notorious urban "Red Terror" of 1977-78 was matched by indiscriminate violence against rural populations, especially in Eritrea and Tigray. Counterinsurgency strategies involved forcibly relocating millions of rural people and cutting food supplies to insurgent areas. Also, these military policies were instrumental in creating famine, and the government used relief supplies as weapons to further its war aims. There is now a prospect of lasting peace, but concerns remain such as the demand for justice and the future protection of human rights.
(0383) 9/91, 416 pp., ISBN 1-56432-038-3, $20.00/£14.95
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(A306) Human Rights Crisis as Central Power Crumbles, 4/91, 24 pp., $3.00/£1.95
(A305) Mengistu's Empty "Democracy," 3/91, 14 pp., $3.00/£1.95
 
 

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