Disclaimer: This is an English translation of EHRCO statement and is intended solely for information purposes.
Statement from the Ethiopian Human Rights Council (EHRCO)
Short statement regarding the suspension of the Ethiopian Human Rights Council (EHRCO)
December 26/2024 (Tahasass 17/2017 E.C.)
The Ethiopian Human Rights Council (EHRCO) is a major organization which has played a major role in promoting respect for human rights, democracy and rule of law over the last 33 years in our country of Ethiopia, and was registered under the civil society organizations declaration 1113/2011 under domestic organization number 1146. On December 25th, 2024 (Tahasass 16, 2017 E.C.) the civil society organizations authority number 02/ACSCO/3/46 issued a letter dated December 23rd, 2024 (Tahasass 14, 2017 E.C.) stating that EHRCO was operating outside of its stated mission, was not independent and that it did not operate within its confines during the 2023 budget year, that it operated without accountability, and the authority office suspended our organization from all activities. Following the suspension EHRCO did not provide any statement to any social media platform.
The Ethiopian Human Rights Council (EHRCO) is at all times an free and independent human rights organization which follows laws and order. For this reason, we are in talks with the authority office so that the suspension may be lifted and had no intention of issuing a statement.
However, we have observed writings shared on social media describing EHRCO’s activities as political along with other similar descriptions. The comments shared on social media however have no connection with the reasoning provided by the authority and do not reflect the mission or actions of the EHRCO and are rather attempts to extinguish our great work.
However the EHRCO is a veteran organization which has persisted despite past repressive laws which restricted many other organizations, and even now our organization is prepared to resolve the problem we have encountered through dialogue and work within organizational and legal frameworks in order to continue our work in promoting respect for human rights, forming a democratic system, for rule of law and to ensure the establishment of law and order in our country, through impartiality and accountability.
EHRCO will engage the authority office to resolve the matter through discussions and will inform the public and other relevant actors of the outcome, and before this we would like to clarify that news circulating from social media does not originate from us.
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
