Ruth Cadbury – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ruth Cadbury on 2016-10-07.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent steps his Department has taken to ensure that human rights are being upheld in Ethiopia.

Mr Tobias Ellwood

We remain deeply concerned by the violence which has occurred in the Oromia and Amhara regions of Ethiopia throughout 2016 including the high number of deaths.

We have made clear to the Government of Ethiopia, including at ministerial level, our concerns about the handling of these protests. We have reiterated our strong support for the constitutional right of all Ethiopian citizens to gather peacefully and express their opinions. We also supported the EU’s statement of 10 August expressing concern and condolences to those affected, and their statement on the current state of emergency.

At the Ethiopian state opening on Parliament on Monday 10 October, Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn, announced proposals which Ethiopia hope will address some of the underlying grievances of the wider population.

We continue to raise our concerns with the Government of Ethiopia both through our bilateral engagement, as well as jointly with our international partners.