--With jail terms for journalists and legal constraints on the activities of civil society groups, Ethiopia doesn't appear to be ticking the good governance boxes required of donors.
UN human rights experts have expressed their dismay at what they see as the continuing abuse of anti-terrorism legislation to curb freedom of expression in Ethiopia.
The blunt criticism from the UN may not be so easy to shrug off by a regime usually impervious to foreign criticism. It recently brusquely dismissed a Human Rights Watch that accused the government of forcibly relocating thousands of people in the Gambella region.
The UN, however, is no mere NGO. Even though its criticism on Thursday may be water off a duck's back for Meles Zenawi, Ethiopia's prime minister and strongman for almost two decades, it does pose awkward questions for Ethiopia's aid donors. The EU development commissioner, Andries Piebalgs, last year unveiled the EU's agenda for change, putting human rights at the heart of its development policy.
One of the Department for International Development's (DfID) biggest bilateral aid programmes is with Ethiopia – £331m on average a year until 2015. The UK also places importance on human rights, and DfID recently suspended budget support for Malawi partly on governance grounds after the Malawian government cracked down on demonstrations and passed a bill to make it easier for the government to place restrictions on opponents without legal challenge.
A DFID spokesperson said: "The prime minister, the foreign secretary and the secretary of state for international development have all raised concerns with Prime Minister Meles over the recent arrests of opposition leaders and journalists." Read more from the guardian »
UN human rights experts have expressed their dismay at what they see as the continuing abuse of anti-terrorism legislation to curb freedom of expression in Ethiopia.
The blunt criticism from the UN may not be so easy to shrug off by a regime usually impervious to foreign criticism. It recently brusquely dismissed a Human Rights Watch that accused the government of forcibly relocating thousands of people in the Gambella region.
The UN, however, is no mere NGO. Even though its criticism on Thursday may be water off a duck's back for Meles Zenawi, Ethiopia's prime minister and strongman for almost two decades, it does pose awkward questions for Ethiopia's aid donors. The EU development commissioner, Andries Piebalgs, last year unveiled the EU's agenda for change, putting human rights at the heart of its development policy.
One of the Department for International Development's (DfID) biggest bilateral aid programmes is with Ethiopia – £331m on average a year until 2015. The UK also places importance on human rights, and DfID recently suspended budget support for Malawi partly on governance grounds after the Malawian government cracked down on demonstrations and passed a bill to make it easier for the government to place restrictions on opponents without legal challenge.
A DFID spokesperson said: "The prime minister, the foreign secretary and the secretary of state for international development have all raised concerns with Prime Minister Meles over the recent arrests of opposition leaders and journalists." Read more from the guardian »
No comments:
Post a Comment