Ethiopian Human Rights Council to Receive Amnesty’s Rights Award
ADDIS ABABA – The German branch of Amnesty International is recognizing the Ethiopian Human Rights Council (EHRCO) for “selfless human rights advocacy” in the East African nation.
Amnesty honors individuals and groups who have championed human rights under the most difficult of conditions every two years.
This time, it said the award together with €10,000 financial prize will recognise the EHRCO – the eleventh time the award will be conferred.
“Receiving the award and working with international human rights organizations like Amnesty International is immensely important to us, ” said Dan Yirga Haile, Executive Director of EHRCO.
“In Ethiopia, the government and politicians suppress many voices of the people in various ways,” he continued. “These voices are not getting the attention they deserve.”
The Executive director also said the Award “helps make these voices heard by honoring EHRCO’s relentless human rights efforts for thirty years now.”
The organization has been active in Ethiopia since for the last 30 years.
Markus N. Beeko, Secretary General of Amnesty International in Germany, called EHRCO the “voice of the unheard in Ethiopia”.
“For 30 years, EHRCO has been fighting for those affected by human rights abuses. For this, its supporters have been insulted, imprisoned, tortured and even killed,” Beeko said.
“Nevertheless, EHRCO never allowed itself to be intimidated.”
Its employees investigate human rights abuses, provide legal advice to those affected and are involved in human rights education, says Amnesty, adding the outbreak of the conflict in 2020 in north Ethiopia, “especially in the Tigray region, makes EHRCO’s human rights work indispensable”.
EHRCO’s Executive Director will accept the award in person in a ceremony scheduled to take place in Berlin, Germany, on 30 May 2022.
