By AFP
The suspension of four independent human rights NGOs in Ethiopia has been lifted, the state-run Ethiopian Human Rights Commission (EHRC) said Monday.
The government ordered the Center for the Advancement of Rights and Democracy, and Lawyers for Human Rights to stop operations in mid-November, accusing them of harming national interests.
It later also suspended the Ethiopian Human Rights Council and the Ethiopian Human Rights Defenders Center in December.
Human Rights Watch called the decisions a “crackdown on civil society”.
The EHRC said Monday it was “pleased that its advocacy efforts have been successful” in lifting the suspension of the four NGOs.
In December, the EHRC — which is administratively independent from the government, but whose chair is appointed by parliament — had expressed concern “about the impact of these suspensions on civic space”.
The government has previously suspended rights groups, including international NGOs, for criticising its conduct in the devastating war in the Tigray region that killed hundreds of thousands of people between 2020 and 2022.
The Horn of Africa country of around 120 million people still faces multiple conflicts, particularly in the most populous regions of Amhara and Oromia, where federal forces are fighting armed militias.
Both the federal forces and the militias have been accused of human rights violations.
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© Agence France-Presse