The Ethiopian Authority for Civil Society Organisations suspended the Ethiopian Human Rights Council and the Ethiopian Human Rights Defenders Center in December, citing allegations of bias and overstepping their mandates.
However, HRW’s Africa Advocacy Director, Allan Ngari, argues that the suspensions are a continuation of restrictive policies aimed at silencing critical voices in the country.
Speaking to Channel Africa on Thursday, Ngari highlighted that the targeting of these groups came shortly after three other major rights organisations, Lawyers for Human Rights, the Center for the Advancement of Rights and Democracy, and the Association for Human Rights in Ethiopia, were also suspended under similar accusations.
“For decades, we have been reporting on the restrictive civil society space in Ethiopia, but these recent clampdowns are a significant blow,” Ngari said. He noted that since 2020, Ethiopia has witnessed increasing hostility towards independent organisations and the media, particularly following the outbreak of conflict in the Tigray region.
Beyond civil society restrictions, Ethiopia has faced widespread human rights violations linked to armed conflicts in Tigray, Oromia, and Amhara regions. According to HRW, these suspensions come as the government continues to wage internal conflicts, further limiting accountability mechanisms.
Ngari warned that the crackdown is not just about silencing organisations but also about controlling the flow of information.
“The suspension of these groups removes one of the last remaining independent monitoring mechanisms in the country. This poses a severe threat to the credibility of Ethiopia’s transitional justice process,” he explained.
HRW is concerned that Ethiopia is following a broader trend seen across Africa, where governments are increasingly restricting civil society and media freedoms. “We’ve seen movements towards closing online spaces as well, making it even harder to monitor human rights violations,” Ngari said.
The suspension of independent organisations sends a clear message, Ngari concluded, “It’s a chilling effect that signals to other groups and the public that speaking out against the government could come at a high cost.”
--ChannelAfrica--
