Amnesty International said in its annual report that the martial law
declared by the Ethiopian regime in october last year has been used to
further its human rights violations against citizens.
In 2016, the rights group says, anti-government protesters were met
with lethal force and arrest and torture has continued against dissents.
“Prolonged protests over political, economic, social and cultural
grievances were met with excessive and lethal force by police. The
crackdown on the political opposition saw mass arbitrary arrests,
torture and other ill-treatment, unfair trials and violations of the
rights to freedom of expression and association. On 9 October, the
government announced a state of emergency, which led to further human
rights violations,” Amnesty said in the report.
Although
authorities introduced “reforms” to calm the protests especially in the
Oromo and Amhara regions, they have failed to address the root causes of
grievances, the report said adding that “After the state of emergency
was declared in October, protests subsided but human rights violations
increased.”
The report said by the end of the year 2016, security
forces killed at least 800 people since the protest began in November
2015. Local opposition parties however put the number at 1500.
Amnesty said the regime has continued violation of rights and
extrajudicial killings with impunity while at the same time rejecting
calls by the international community for independent investigations.
“The government rejected calls by the UNHCR, the UN refugee agency, and
the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights for independent and
impartial investigations of human rights violations committed in the
context of protests in various regional states.”
Globally, Amnesty
warned that “Politicians wielding a toxic, dehumanizing ‘us vs them’
rhetoric are creating a more divided and dangerous world.”
“Divisive fear-mongering has become a dangerous force in world affairs.
Whether it is Trump, Orban, Erdoğan or Duterte, more and more
politicians calling themselves anti-establishment are wielding a toxic
agenda that hounds, scapegoats and dehumanizes entire groups of people.
Today’s politics of demonization shamelessly peddles a dangerous idea
that some people are less human than others, stripping away the humanity
of entire groups of people. This threatens to unleash the darkest
aspects of human nature.”
The report, The State of the World’s Human
Rights, delivers the most comprehensive analysis of the state of human
rights around the world, covering 159 countries.
Read the full report on...
Amnesty International Report 2016/17: The state of the world's human rights
