Ethiopia announced this week that some of the restrictions around its five-month-old state of emergency have been lifted. Expand Ethiopian president Mulatu Teshome addresses members of the Ethiopian Parliament and the House of Federation about the declaration of the state of emergency, in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, October 10, 2016. The announcement that arbitrary detentions – long a significant and underreported problem in rural Ethiopia – are no longer permissible under the state of emergency is welcome news. The government hasn’t permitted the United Nation’s Working Group on Arbitrary Detention to investigate allegations despite requests from the UN body in 2005, 2007, 2009, 2011, and 2015. A Human Rights Watch report last year detailing the brutal crackdown against protesters in Oromia region highlighted the problem of mass arbitrary detention.

Source: Ethiopian News March 16, 2017 19:52 UTC