Ethiopia: High international legitimacy of the current government Vs. Domestic crises of human rights

It is the strong belief of everyone that a government is the ultimate responsible body to shepherd the real enforcement of human rights for its citizen and every human being on the territory of the country. Even though the power of executive and particularly that of the Prime Minister is unlimited (no term limit for the PM), Ethiopia has a constitution enacted in 1994 that recognized individual and collective human rights. Recalling the grave brutality and systematic violation of human rights taking place in different parts of Ethiopia (Gambella Region killings, University students, intellectuals, business people of Oromo people killings and imprisonment, systematic discrimination and marginalization based on ethnic and race, religion, etc), killings of people in the 2005 national election, it has become an exacerbating situation to see poor  people unrepresented before the court of law. Justice has become a luxurious commodity afforded by the few rich and ethnic group only. Very recently, the ruling party has made a statute that fully prohibited International Civil Society Organizations to work on advocacy in any part of the country. As a result, the poor and marginalized part of the society have been trapped in the middle of repression with no any attention from international community. For example, in the largest region of Ethiopia, i.e. Oromia region, more than million cases are brought before the court but end up with miscarriage of justice. The same problem exists in different region of the country.

Ironically, the view of Western countries with regard to the democratic and political system of Ethiopia makes the situation more unhealthy.  The real problem and systematic violation of human rights on the ground needs to be brought to the attention of international community. The world community is advised to be aware of the fact that the government of Ethiopia should not only fool and make a trick of human rights by only showing a "good and paper tiger" document/constitution that has no value beyond the literature.  There is no way that individual person can bring a complaint before international human rights forum (Human Rights Treaty based Committee) because of the fact that the country has not recognized the competence of those forum and didn't sign an addition protocols of the important international instruments. More commitment is expected from human rights activists and advocates to mobilize the situation. So, it is logical to start with at least some sort of project that is easily manageable and feasible to achieve a certain goal. For instance, establishing an independent system of Public Defender (PD) can be a glimmer of hope for the delivery of justice in Ethiopia.