Making Human Rights a Reality
November 4, 2012 (Ayyaantuu.com)
How can we forever turn the tide on intolerance, discrimination, and extremism?
Introduction
We live in a world troubled by inequality and contradiction. Our Parliaments have outlawed a range of inhumane practices and passed laws intended to ensure fair treatment for all; yet human rights organizations remind us that for many of the world’s 6 billion human beings, life continues to be a painful struggle for existence against injustice and abuse.
Given today’s modern sheen of civility, the particulars can alarm. In its Report of 2006, Amnesty International described significant human rights violations in 150 countries. The number of complaints to the European Court of Human Rights has soared from just over 1,000 in 1988 to 45,000 in 2005. Read more…
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The Right to Speak Loudly
Ayyaantuu.com | October 28, 2012
The Honorable Dr. Maya Angelou,
It is a great honor to have the opportunity to get an e-mail message from you. It is also a great opportunity to introduce you to the most marginalized peoples in Africa – the Oromos, the Sidamas, the Ogadenians, the Afars, the Hadiyas, the Agew and many others in the Horn of Africa whose voices are rarely heard in the West due to the conspiracy of silence. Before I convey your message to American citizens of Horn of African origin, I would like to bring the following very important points to your attention: Read more…
Categories: HOA News, Human Rights, Ogaden, Oromia Tags:
Good News for Asylees in the United States
Don’t Forget to Ask Me a Question
Dear Fayera,
There’s still time left to send me a question for the Carter Center’s 30th Anniversary celebration online video series. I’ll answer questions from the public about the Center’s work and the international issues that affect it.
Please submit your question by October 18 ►Selected answers will be broadcast online, through the Carter Center’s pages on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and the Center’s own blog at www.cartercenter.org.
Thank you in advance for your inspiring ideas as we continue to pursue practical and cost-effective ways of bringing peace, health, and hope to the least fortunate on earth.
Sincerely,
Jimmy Carter Read more…
Categories: HOA News, Human Rights Tags:
Ethiopia: Joint letter to Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn
AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL
OPEN LETTER
9 October 2012
AI Index: AFR 25/013/2012
Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn
Federal DemocraticRepublic of Ethiopia
Office of the Prime Minister
P.O. Box1031
Addis Ababa,Ethiopia
Re: Restrictions on Civil Society and Media
Dear Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn,
As you assume the Premiership of Ethiopia, we, the undersigned organisations and individuals, would like to take the opportunity to raise with you a number of issues which we urge you to address as a matter of priority. We believe that you now have the opportunity to set a new standard of responsible and accountable leadership and to usher in a new era of promotion of human rights and respect for the rule of law. We call upon your government to take steps immediately to begin this process, in accordance with the Ethiopian Constitution and Ethiopia’s obligations under international human rights law and standards. This should begin with the release from prison of journalists, political opposition party members and other dissidents detained for the peaceful expression of their political views. We urge you to acknowledge and respect the role of civil society and a press corps free of unnecessary or excessive state control, as essential, if sometimes adversarial, partners to the attainment of Ethiopia’s human rights and development goals. Read more…
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OSG Australia Appeal for Urgent Action
OSG URGENT ACTION
October 10, 2012
To: Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR),
Palais Wilson, 52 rue des Pâquis
CH-1201 Geneva, Switzerland
Oromia Support Group Australia (OSGA) expresses its deep concern, and appeal to your office for your urgent intervention in relation to the arbitrary arrest of Oromo civilians on 30th September 2012, by Ethiopian armed forces, during celebration of ‘Irrechaa’ Festival – Thanks Giving Day – in Oromia region. Read more…
Categories: Human Rights Tags:
Preventing Genocide in Ethiopia
From left to right: Fayera Nagaraa (a torture survivor from Oromia), Phil Austin, Sara Dickson and Kaitlin Murphy (Interns from the Washington Center) during visit to the U.S. Congress on June 26, 2012.
July 22, 2012 (Ayyaantuu.com) I have the moral obligation to bring the Ethiopian crisis to your attention because Maryland University has recently released a report that Ethiopia is on a high risk of genocide, instability, and politicide. World Genocide Watch, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and many human rights groups and the media have also repeatedly warned the international community about the severe human rights abuses in Ethiopia. The Oromo Studies Association and Oromo Women’s Association have also written a letter of concern to President Barack Obama, to the leaders of major Western countries, the U.N. High Commission for Human Rights and the World Genocide Watch, etc.
The International Crisis Group (ICG) also advised donor countries to take governance problems more seriously but the international community never paid attention to their advance warnings about the Ethiopian crisis. Many human rights groups and the media have well articulated the Ethiopian crisis but it is the report of the ICG that has exposed Meles Zenawi’s Revolutionary Democracy. It is the best and well articulated report and synopsis of a report by the International Crisis Group (ICG) dated September 4, 2009, Ethiopia: Ethnic Federalism and its Discontents, may help to understand how this minority group has created an ultra-big government to control the state and people by the funds it obtains from donor nations, the IMF and the World Bank. Read more…
Categories: HOA News, Human Rights Tags:
Harassments and Intimidations of Activists Continued Unabated in Ethiopia
Ethiopia: Harassments and Intimidations of Activists Continued Unabated in Ethiopia
HRLHA Press Release
Calls for Reversal of Politically Motivated Sentences
The Ethiopian TPLF/EPRDF Government has given the local and international community another huge shock by imposing long term imprisonments on 24 human rights activists, journalists, and opposition members including the prominent press freedom advocate Iskinder Nega.
An Ethiopian court on Friday 13th of July, 2012 jailed journalist Iskinder Nega for 18 years for “terrorism” while five other exiled journalists and a blogger were sentenced in absentia to between 15 years and life in prison simply because of attempting to exercise some of the fundamental rights such as that of freedom of expression and association granted by the Constitution of the country; and the court was said to have referred to the recently legislated and controversial “anti-terrorism” law to hand down the penalties.
Categories: Ethiopia, HOA News, Human Rights Tags:
Rio+20 missed an opportunity to bolster human rights
Business, government and development agencies should combat discrimination, which can drive poverty and conflict
By Jan Egeland and Jessica Evans
Women march at a rally for women’s rights during the Rio+20 conference. Photograph: Felipe Dana/AP
June 28, 2012 (The Guardian) – “They come every day … four or five cars usually – 20 to 60 soldiers. They say, ‘We need this land for sugar, so you shouldn’t be here’ … We say, ‘We don’t want [sugar]‘, but that is not the right answer. They hit us or they take us to jail.”
These are the words of a Mursi man, an indigenous pastoralist in southern Ethiopia, describing to Human Rights Watch how he and his community have been forced to move from the Lower Omo Valley in southern Ethiopia to make way for sugar plantations.
The rights of these indigenous people to be consulted and give their free, prior and informed consent before relocation were cast aside. Instead, local government and security forces carried out arbitrary arrests and detentions, used physical violence, and seized or destroyed the property of indigenous communities. More forced evictions in the Omo Valley are threatened in the near future. Read more…
Categories: Africa, Human Rights Tags:
Launching a Human Rights Organization in Washington Metropolitan Area
June 13, 2012
Oromo Torture Survivors are named “Giants of the Truth Speakers Project”. We have been recognized by many Human Rights Organizations, prominent leaders, writers, and distinguished scholars. To effectively continue giving meaning to our lives, we have decided to launch an Oromo Human Rights Organization in the Metropolitan Washington area.
We will brief the Oromo people in this region on June 24, 2012 about our accomplishments and about the need for advocacy in this important part of the United States. By speaking truth to people of power, we managed to reach out to many Human Rights Organizations, religious organizations, educational institutions, politicians and ordinary citizens.
We would like to invite all Oromos to attend this historical day to advance the cause of the Oromo people through advocacy. We will continue to closely work with major Human Rights Organizations such as Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, UN Convention Against Torture, the Torture Abolition and Survivors Support Coalition (TASSC) – International and other Oromo Human Rights Organizations such as Human Rights League of the Horn of Africa (HRLHA), Oromia Support Group (OSG), etc. Read more…
Categories: HOA News, Human Rights Tags:
Deadly, Religiously Outrageous, and Socially Destructive Consequences of Land Grab in Western Ethiopia
HRLHA – Press Release
June 7, 2012
Apart from displacements and dispossessions without consents and compensations, more and more negative consequences of land grab in the name of development are surfacing from time to time in different parts of Ethiopia; all outcries, criticisms and demands for corrective measures falling on deaf ears.
According to information obtained by HRLHA from Wixate locality in Yayyo District of Ilubabbor Zone in western Oromia, a teenager called Zerihun Girma has died after being buried alive in a man-made landslide created from a mountain of soil dumped along a small river in a residential area. The soil was coming from the digging into the ground for a coal mine project underway in the area. Read more…
Categories: Human Rights Tags:
Violent and Deadly Crackdowns Against Worshipers In Ethiopia
Ethiopia: HRLHA Urgent Action and Appeal,
PUBLIC 13 May, 2012
The Human Rights League of the Horn of Africa (HRLHA) strongly condemns the Ethiopian Government’s interference into religious affairs and its heavy-handedness against Muslim communities in various parts of the country.
In this religion-based and allegedly government-sponsored violence that openly started around the beginning of February, 2012 and has widespread particularly in the central and southern parts of the country, four people have been confirmed to have been killed by armed government forces,(Musa Gabi 13, student of local madrasa (religious) school, Kamal Irena 60, tailor, Aliyi Waqo 40, peasant, and Shafi Jano Tufa 40; daily laborer) while hundreds of others have ended up in prisons. The four dead, who were from the Gadab Asasa locality of Arsi Zone in Southern Oromia Region, and the killing happened on the 6th of April, 2012 when a very huge crowd of Muslim worshipers where met with well-armed government security forces in front of a local mosque following a Friday “Jum’a” prayer. Read more…
Categories: Ethiopia, Human Rights Tags:
Fifth Anniversary of HRLHA
A Speech at “Night to fight for human rights”
Dinner and Entertainment Event
By Garoma Wakessa ;- Executive Director of HRLHA | May 5, 2012
Good evening and welcome to HRLHA’s “Night to fight for human rights” dinner and entertainment event. It is, as always, an honor to be a part of this event and especially this year, as we celebrate HRLHA’s fifth anniversary.
I have a number of people to thank tonight on behalf of myself and Human Rights League of the Horn of Africa.
First, I would like to take this opportunity to thank all who worked on Fundraising committee, and as Volunteers to put this event together,
Thanks to sisters who offered us a delicious dinner covering all expenses by themselves,
Thanks to HRLHA Board members for the service they are rendering to this organization. Read more…
Categories: Human Rights Tags:
Oromia: Burqaa is Breaking the Conspiracy of Silence
Oromo torture survivors will join other survivors from around the world, Human Rights Organizations and educational institutions to tell the brutality of the TPLF regime. They will give testimonies about their experiences and that of other Oromos who did not have the chance tp tell their stories. The prison didn’t only speak Oromiffa but also the TPLF prison was hell on earth for Oromos. We repeatedly reported that about 50 % of survivors come from that brutal empire – Ethiopia.
The tentative schedule we obtained from the Torture Abolition and Survivors Support Coalition (TASSC) International is as follows:
Join TASSC International in June to Commemorate Survivor Week
This June will mark the 15th anniversary of TASSC International’s June Survivor Week. We invite you to participate in our activities during the week, and to organize a local commemoration on June 26 in recognition of the United Nations International Day in Support of Victims of Torture.
During the week, survivors will be participating in a three day human rights training, and lobby Congress on Wednesday, June 20.
Schedule of activities for the Washington DC Metropolitan area include the following public events:
Thursday morning, June 21, 9 am – 12 noon, Catholic University: Campaign to End Torture, Enforced Disappearance and Impunity Read more…
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UDJ expresses concern for safety of Ethiopian refugees to return from Norway
Finote Netsanet – Amharic weekly (March 27) Unity for Democracy and Justice Party (UDJ) criticizes Norwegian government on its decision to forcibly return Ethiopian refugees. UDJ executive member indicated that his party held discussion with Norwegian ambassador here in Addis and send letters to high ranking officials expressing concern for safety of political refugees. In a related development, UDJ express deep condolences on the death of Alem Dechasa, Ethiopian migrant domestic worker in Lebanon. The party condemns Ethiopian government for failure to protect rights of migrant citizens.
Categories: Ethiopia, HOA News, Human Rights Tags:
