UN Human Rights Council orders international investigation into Ethiopian abuses Human Rights News

Ethiopia had earlier denounced the decision to hold a special session and called on countries to vote against the draft text.

The UN Human Rights Council has voted to launch an international investigation into the ill-treatment in Ethiopia, despite protests from Addis Ababa, among those who have warned of widespread violence.

The 47-member council voted 21 in favor, 15 against and 11 abstentions on Friday to order the establishment of an “International Commission of Human Rights Experts on Ethiopia” to investigate a wide range of alleged violations and abuses by all parties.

Speaking in a one-day virtual session, Nada al-Nashif, a rights MP, he said The UN continued to receive “credible reports” that in the wild 13-month conflict, all sides were committing serious human rights violations amid a deeper humanitarian crisis.

Al-Nashif warns that there is a “very high risk of increased hatred, violence and discrimination” in Ethiopia, which could lead to “widespread violence”. [with] great consequences, not only for millions of people in Ethiopia, but also for the whole region ”.

Earlier, the Ethiopian government condemned the decision to hold a special session, urging countries to vote against the draft text.

“We call on all members of the Council … to oppose short-sighted interests and reject this resolution to renounce the politicization of human rights,” said Ambassador Zembe Kebede, accusing Geneva of being “kidnapped” and used as “kidnapping”. a tool for political pressure ”.

“My government will not cooperate with any mechanisms that may be imposed on it because it is deliberately trying to destabilize it.”

Nearly 10 million people in northern Ethiopia have severe food insecurity, and at least two million have had to flee their homes.

Humanitarian workers have little access to and suffer from hostility.

The Ethiopian government has sought to restrict reports of the war and has arrested some journalists.

As many as 5,000 to 7,000 people injured in the new state of emergency in Ethiopia remain in prison, most of them Tigris, al-Nashif said.

“Many are being held incommunicado or in unknown places. This is equivalent to the obligatory disappearance, which is a very serious matter. “

The Ethiopian ambassador said the Ethiopian government had set up an “inter-ministerial working group” in response to a human rights report released last month and had begun work.

A joint investigation by the UN Office of Human Rights and the Ethiopian Commission on Human Rights warned last month that all sides had committed war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Tigray conflict.

The government’s Ethiopian Commission on Human Rights acknowledged in a statement this week that there was “added value” in pushing for a joint investigation, but said that the creation of a new body was “repetitive, contrary to ongoing implementation processes, and even more so for victims and survivors.” it delays the solution ”.