Ethiopia: UN sets up commission of inquiry into war in Tigray

The UN Human Rights Council in Geneva (Illustrative image).

AP - Salvatore Di Nolfi

Text by: RFI Follow

2 min

In Geneva, the UN Human Rights Council adopted this Friday, December 17 by 21 votes to 15 and 11 abstentions the creation of an international commission of experts in charge of investigating the atrocities committed by all belligerents of the war in Ethiopia.

The establishment of this commission of inquiry was met with vehement protests from Ethiopia, which deems the work of its own National Human Rights Commission sufficient.

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The brand new “International Commission of Human Rights Experts on Ethiopia” will be made up of three members.

All three will be appointed by the president of the UN Human Rights Council, for one year "

 renewable as many times as necessary

".

UN🇺🇳 Human Rights Council Decides to Establish an International Commission of Human Rights Experts to Investigate Allegations of Violations in # Ethiopia🇪🇹.



READ what @UNHumanRights, @UN_SPExperts, States & NGOs said at # SS33 in @ UNGeneva's meeting summary https://t.co/7JTAbzLDAu https://t.co/DAXiIT9qBy pic.twitter.com/x73VADj573

- UN Human Rights Council (@UN_HRC) December 17, 2021

This UN commission will come, according to the text adopted Friday, "to

 complete the joint commission of inquiry 

" UN-Ethiopia that Addis Ababa put forward to refute this new initiative.

It will be responsible for conducting a "

 complete and impartial 

"

investigation

into the crimes committed since November 3, 2020 " 

by all parties to the conflict

 ", " 

building

 " precisely "

 on the investigation report 

" of this joint commission.

About 20 military, legal, administrative, medical and police specialists will work for her in Entebbe, Uganda.

No African country voted for the commission

The “

pen-carrying

” diplomats 

 , as they say, have taken all kinds of precautions to respond to objections from Ethiopia, which has campaigned all week to defeat this resolution.

But they have not managed to recruit African countries widely.

Libya, Malawi, Mauritania, Senegal, Sudan and Togo abstained (which was the most optimistic scenario of proponents of the project).

Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Côte d'Ivoire, Eritrea, Gabon, Namibia and Somalia voted against.

And none voted for.

The UN commission will be responsible for presenting an investigative report to the Human Rights Council in Geneva, as well as to the General Assembly in New York.

►Also read: Interview - Raids against Tigrayans in Ethiopia: the last wave has a "systematic" side

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