July 6/2000
ON THE APPROVAL OF THE HUMAN RIGHTS BILLS BY THE EPRDF PARLIAMENT The EPRDF
Parliament has passed the bills establishing the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission and the office of the ombudsman and a revised bill of the family law. Reports indicate that the bills were unanimously approved by the parliament three days before the end of its official tenure. While the approval of the bills is positive, experience dictates on us to reassert that the adoption of bills has not been a major problem in Ethiopia. The government has accepted the articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and has even adopted a Constitution that incorporates quite a few of these articles or rights but that has not hindered it from violating these same rights with impunity.
There are serious fears that the Human Rights Commission that would be established and the Ombudsman will be controlled by the government and used to serve as its mouthpieces. Foreign governments who have been involved in supporting these endeavors and in generally trying to aid the judiciary have not at all been able to dent the fundamental problem : the government controls the judiciary, the parliament, the electoral commission, the police, the security, etc. Hence, it is more than likely that these bills would be dead letters or will lead to no substantial change in the ! state of affairs. What has to change in Ethiopia is the practice of human rights violations by the government.
The EPRDF has to release all political prisoners, end its control of the judiciary, end once and for all the torture of prisoners, the murder of dissidents, and it must respect the rights and autonomy of the civil society and its organizations. The violation of the rights of children can only end when the government stops its actions negatively affecting the children of the country and practically respects and enforces the law. Adopting bills is ok but respecting and guaranteeing rights practically is what the Ethiopian people and the more than 14,000 political prisoners need.
SOCEPP
