Urges greater independence for Rights Commission, Ombudsman
The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child has expressed alarm over what it says is a significant increase in grave violations against children, including killing and maiming, sexual violence, abduction, and denial of humanitarian access, under the context of conflict in Ethiopia.
The Committee published its findings on the child rights situation in Ethiopia this week after officials from the Ministry of Justice and UN delegates submitted a series of reports to it over the past months.
The Committee urges Ethiopia to comply with applicable international law and to end and prevent such grave violations, and to allow timely and unimpeded humanitarian access.
It also called on the government to facilitate access to encampments to enable the identification of children and their transfer to civilian child protection actors, to hold perpetrators accountable, and to provide medical care, including reproductive health, psychosocial support and legal aid to conflict-affected children.
Among the points that stood out in the reports was the high prevalence of violence against children, including domestic violence, abuse, neglect, sexual and gender-based violence, bullying and online sexual exploitation and abuse, states the UN document.
The Committee has called on Ethiopia to adopt national comprehensive child protection legislation and to establish a national database on cases of violence against children. It also called for independent and thorough investigations into all allegations of violence, including alleged crimes related to gender-based violence and ill-treatment in detention centers, and for bringing perpetrators to justice.
Concerning independent monitoring, the Committee wants to see a more independent Ethiopian Human Rights Commission and of the Ethiopian Institution of the Ombudsman, including with regards to their funding, mandate, and immunities.
The Committee urges the Ethiopian government to consider replicating good practices from the Benishangul-Gumuz and Afar regional states, where special procedures allow for mothers detained with their children to be released on bail.
The document also cites Kaliti High Security Detention Center, where children detained with their mothers are provided day care service within the prison.
Members of the Committee demanded to know what is preventing Ethiopia from introducing a uniform child right code across the country.
The Ethiopian delegation, led by Tsegab Kebebew Daka, permanent representative to the UN Geneva office, responded by saying that although child rights are enshrined in the constitution, regional administrations also have a say in the matter.
The Committee also put in an official request to raise the child criminality age up from the current age of nine.
“The Committee takes note of the fact that the State party [Ethiopia] has been seriously affected by the complex emergencies including armed conflicts in northern Ethiopia, inter-ethnic conflicts, large-scale displacement, earthquakes in northern Ethiopia and severe effects of climate change resulting in recurrent droughts and floods, coupled with severe economic instability exacerbated by inflation, that have all had a negative impact on the realization of the rights and on the welfare of children in the country,” reads the document.
“The Committee also acknowledges and deeply regrets that the State Party has been confronted with considerable cuts in the support provided by the international cooperation that left millions of children and families in urgent need of food aid, which have provoked hundreds of hunger-related deaths, slowed the economic development and forced the State Party to focus on debt repayment at the expense of investment in basic social services.”
