The Ethiopian Reconciliation Commission is a

truth and reconciliation commission A truth commission, also known as a truth and reconciliation commission or truth and justice commission, is an official body tasked with discovering and revealing past wrongdoing by a government (or, depending on the circumstances, non-state act ...

created in

Ethiopia Ethiopia, , om, Itiyoophiyaa, so, Itoobiya, ti, ኢትዮጵያ, Ítiyop'iya, aa, Itiyoppiya officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the ...

in December 2018.

Creation

In December 2018, the

House of Peoples' Representatives The House of Peoples' Representatives is the lower house of the Ethiopia, Ethiopian Federal Parliamentary Assembly. Located in the capital Addis Ababa, the House has 547 members. All are elected in theory for five-year term in single-seat constit ...

(HoPR) voted overwhelmingly in favour of the creation of an Ethiopian Reconciliation Commission. The creation of the ERC was formally published in '' Federal Negarit Gazeta'' as Proclamation 1102/2018 on 5 February 2019, with the proclamation becoming law on 25 December 2018.

Leadership and structure

In February 2019, the HoPR appointed 41 members to the Reconciliation Commission, including

Berhanu Nega Berhanu Nega ( am, ብርሃኑ ነጋ; born 6 December 1958) is an Ethiopian politician who is serving as the current Ministry of Education (Ethiopia), Minister of Education of Ethiopia. He previously was the mayor elect of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia ...

Beyene Petros Beyene Petros is a professor of Biology at Addis Ababa University and a former member of the Ethiopian House of People's Representatives, representing an electoral district in Badawacho of Hadiya Zone. He is currently the chairman of one of the l ...

Derartu Tulu Derartu Tulu NL COL ( om, Daraartuu Tulluu, Amharic: ደራርቱ ቱሉ; born 21 March 1972) is an Ethiopian former long-distance runner, who competed in track, cross country running, and road running up to the marathon distance. She won 10,0 ...

Goshu Wolde Colonel Goshu Wolde (born 1942) is a former Ethiopian Foreign Minister and worked as minister of education, of Ethiopia from 1983 to 1986. Wolde, formerly a foreign minister under Mengistu, resigned the Mengistu government in 1986, by sending his ...

Hailemariam Desalegn Hailemariam Desalegn Boshe ( amh, ኃይለማሪያም ደሳለኝ ቦሼ; born 19 July 1965) is an Ethiopian politician who served as prime minister of Ethiopia from 2012 to 2018. He also previously served as deputy prime minister and Minister ...

, Yetnebersh Nigussie,

Zeresenay Alemseged Zeresenay "Zeray" Alemseged (born 4 June 1969) is an Ethiopian paleoanthropologist who was the Chair of the Anthropology Department at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco, United States. He recently joined the faculty of the Un ...

and other religious figures, former politicians, intellectuals and philanthropists. A religious figure,

Berhaneyesus Demerew Souraphiel Berhaneyesus Demerew Souraphiel, CM (born 14 July 1948) is an Ethiopian prelate of the Ethiopian Catholic Church, which he has headed since his election as Ethiopian Catholic Archbishop of Addis Abeba in 1999. He is also the chancellor of the ...

, was chosen as president of the ERC.

Aim and powers

The aim of the ERC, defined in Article 5 of Proclamation 1102/2018, is to "maintain peace justice, national unity and consensus and also Reconciliation aomng Ethiopian Peoples." The powers and duties of the ERC defined in Article 6 of the Proclamation include communication with varying social groups, identifying the origins of conflicts and human rights violations, considering both the victims' and offenders' points of view, the power to subpoena any document except for national security reasons, to visit any institution and obtain copies of documents found there, to summon any individual or group to give testimony, to get support from any federal or regional police force "depending on the situation", to notify the public and government agencies of the ERC's conclusions, and to "make Reconciliation among peoples to narrow the difference created and to create consensus."

Independence

Article 18 of Proclamation 1102/2018 formally requires the ERC to "perform its acttivities freely and independently".

Witness and whistleblower protection

Article 18 of Proclamation 1102/2018 defines protections for witnesses and

whistleblower A whistleblower (also written as whistle-blower or whistle blower) is a person, often an employee, who reveals information about activity within a private or public organization that is deemed illegal, immoral, illicit, unsafe or fraudulent. Whi ...

Actions

In October 2020, the ERC stated that it had documented 370 "traditional reconciliation and conflict resolution mechanisms". In the context of the increasing tension between the federal and Tigrayan governments, the ERC stated that it was trying to mediate, but that pre-conditions set by both sides had blocked progress.

References

External links

{{official website Law of Ethiopia Human rights in Ethiopia Government agencies of Ethiopia Truth and reconciliation commissions