Council might halt operations due to resources shortages
The Ethiopian Human Rights Council (EHRCO) wrote in a letter to Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, asking the Ethiopian government lift a freeze on around 9 million birr that it froze from the Council’s bank account ten years ago.
EHRCO has been monitoring and reporting human rights violations of the regime with constrained capacity because of pressure from the government in the past 27 years, the letter reads. Following the 2009 Charities and Societies Proclamation (CSO law), asset-freezing orders had been imposed by the government against EHRCO’s funds, amounting to 8,797,184.28 birr deposited in Nib Bank, Awash Bank, United Bank and Abyssinia Bank.
EHRCO’s legal routes to challenge the freezing order has been unsuccessful due to absence of independence proceedings, according to the letter. Because of this, the Council was in severe financial difficulties, forced to close 10 of its thirteen offices in different parts of the country and to slash more than 80 staff members.
EHRCO said growing financial pressures is making it hard to pay staff wages, endangering the Council’s very existence and its vital work.
While commending the government’s efforts for improving the country’s human right situations in the past seven months, it is imperative to strengthen institutions such as EHRCO to make it sustainable, EHRCO said.
EHRCO was established in October 1991 by 32 founding members from academia, business and the professions and has been led by Prof Mesfin Wolde Mariam for several years. It has been the leading human rights voice in the country, with a strong track record of investigating and reporting on violations. The current head is Ameha Mekonnen, a renowned lawyer who has been defending detained journalists and bloggers.
