Berhanu Adelo has been appointed as head of the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission. Berhanu’s controversial past has led to speculations if he will be able to independently lead the human rights institution or not.
Ethiopian House of People’s Representatives (HoPR) today approved the appointment of Human Rights Commission Chief. The law, which governs the working of HR commission, authorizes parliamentary committee to consider and finalize names for this appointment. Berhanu will server for 5 years. His predecessor Daniel Bekele completed his term in last July.
Jawar Mohammed, prominent Ethiopian opposition politician, rejected the appointment. “With the appointment of Berhanu Adelo to lead the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission Abiy’s regime has completed its pretense of appointing independent experts to critical institutions. Those moves were largely aimed at deceiving the West in the first place. Now even that pretense is lifted,” Jawar said.
He criticized Adelo for latter’s past political affiliations. “Adelo is a recycled cadre who loyally served EPRDF’s repressive regime,” he said.
Berhanu Adelo worked as head of Cabinet Affairs with EPRDF government led by Prime Minister Meles Zenawi. He was removed after the Prime Minister received public complaints. Later another EPRDF prime minister Hailemariam Desalegn removed him from the position of Director General Ethiopian Intellectual Property Office due to public complaints.
In December, Ethiopian government suspended two human rights organizations. Ethiopian Human Rights Council and Ethiopian Human Rights Defenders Center were barred from working in Ethiopia. They were accused by the government of politicizing human rights issues.
Ethiopian Human Rights Commission is the only remaining major human rights institution in Ethiopia. Appointment of Berhanu Adelo is being seen as an attempt by the government to control the independence of the institution.
Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s government has been under fire for grave human rights abuses. On Tuesday, Amnesty International issued a statement urging the international community to pressurize the Ethiopian government to stop mass and arbitrary detentions and imprisonments of people in the Amhara region of Ethiopia.
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