PRESS RELEASE
A national consultative workshop recommends a national road map toward initiating, drawing-up and implementing a NHRAP
Within the framework of the Democratic Institutions Program (DIP), a-one day national consultative workshop, organized by the Ethiopian Humana Rights Commission in cooperation with the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human rights (OHCHR), Regional Office for East Africa (EARO), wound up adopting, in principle, a recommendation on a national road map toward initiating a formal process to come up with and implement a National Human Rights Action Plan for Ethiopia (NHRAP).
The recommendation proposes that the Ethiopian government considers and initiates a formal process towards the development of a NHRAP with the view to strengthening the promotion and protection of human rights across the country.
It further proposes that the NHRAP should be based on broad participatory process including all relevant actors in Ethiopia such as representatives from the federal and regional governments, members of the national and regional parliaments, law enforcement organs, representatives of national human rights institutions, CSOs, trade unions, academia, vulnerable groups and communities.
The recommendation concludes by encouraging the government to establish, through appropriate procedures, an interim co-ordination team in which the Commission may act as the over all co-coordinator and secretariat and which will be responsible for following up on initiating the development of the NHRAP and facilitating the establishment of a permanent task force which could be charged with developing the said plan.
Opening the workshop, held on March 15/2010 at Addis Ababa’s Hilton Hotel, Chief Commissioner of the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission, Ambassador Teruneh Zenna, called upon the government of Ethiopia to take the lead and other stake holders to contribute their share to the enormous efforts of the Ethiopian people by making the NHRAP a realty.
The Chief Commissioner said that his Commission expects that the Ethiopian government would take up the essential work for the preparation, adoption and implementation of the Human Rights Action Plan in line with the recommendation of the Universal Peer Review Mechanism (UPR) accepted by Ethiopia and of which one is the development of a national plan of action on human rights.
Concluding his speech, the Chief Commissioner proposed that Ethiopia set up a steering committee led by relevant ministry such as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs or Justice, or of Finance and Development which may also include local NGOs and Civil society representatives.
The Chief Commissioner further proposed that the Commission, in line with Paris Principles, would be happy to join the Committee to fulfill its duty of fostering civil liberty, human development and peace and to willingly coordinate the initial process, until the government establishes a permanent mechanism to undertake the design and subsequent implementation of the plan.
Prior to adopting the recommendation, statements from government and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Regional Office for East Africa had been made calling on the need for working out a roadmap toward initiating, preparing and implementing of the NHRAP. Papers on the background, necessity, content and best practices on national human rights plan of action as well as, an overview of human rights situations in the country including existing mechanisms, programs and initiatives adopted by the government and elements for devising a roadmap for the development of the NHRAP had been presented and discussed.
Participants of the national workshop were drawn from the federal and regional governments, diplomatic community, national and international organizations.
See attached full text of the adopted recommendation of the workshop and the welcoming speech delivered by Chief Commissioner of the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission.