Africa backs Ethiopia protest against UN human rights Council session

African countries have rallied behind Ethiopia in protesting against a planned special session at the UN Human Rights Council that was meant to reprimand Addis Ababa’s alleged war atrocities in the Tigray region…

On Tuesday, none of the continent’s 13 representatives on the 47-member body of the UN, based in Geneva, backed a proposal for the Human Rights Council to discuss Ethiopia as had been proposed by the European Union, The session was due to be held later on Tuesday but the suggestion became controversial for lacking any African support, with most of its proponents mostly Western members of the Council including the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, France and Denmark.

The revelations emerged a day after Ethiopia issued a call to members of the Council to reject what it called a “regrettable” move to have the Tigray war discussed with the aim of creating a special team to investigate war crimes in the country, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s government said the move had a “politically motivated objective” and accused some members of the human rights body of choosing “to advance their political agenda through the work of the Council”.

“Ethiopia therefore calls on members of the Council to categorically reject and vote against the special session and its politically motivated outcome,” Ethiopia’s ministry of foreign affairs said on Monday in a statement.

“What should have been a priority for the Council instead was the urgent task of (investigating) the violations of human rights and atrocities committed by the TPLF (Tigray People’s Liberation Front) terrorist group in the Afar and Amhara regional states. It is unfortunate to witness that no such call has come forth from some in the Council.

The controversial proposal emerged last Friday, pushed by the European Union. On Monday, EU’s head of delegation to the UN in Geneva, Lotte Knudsen, wrote a joint letter with Slovak permanent representative to the UN in Geneva, Anita Pipan, asking for a special session “because of the importance and urgency of the situation” in Ethiopia.