Ethiopian Lawyers' Association (2018-2019) - UPR Ethiopian Lawyers' Association - May-December/2018 - UPR Sida har fått en förfrågan om stöd från Ethiopian Lawyers' Association för att producera en så kallad skuggrapport för den FN etablerade processen som heter Universiell Periodisk Granskning. Den officiella FN-processen syftar till att alla länder med 5 års intervall ska granskas i hur de efterlever de mänskliga rättigheteskonventioner de ratificerat. En viktig del i den formella processen är att erhålla så kallade skuggrapporter som ofta det civilasamhället i länderna som granskas producerar. 

Det övergripande projektet innehåller 3 komponenter:
1. Utarbeta ett uppföljningsverktyg för de rekommendationer som Etiopien erhöll i den förra granskningen 2014.
2. Lansering av kommande forskning om MR-situationen i landet
3. Etablerande av en arbetsgrupp bestående av civila samhället som ska följa upp tidigare rekommendationer och skriva en skuggrapport för kommande granskning 2019.

Det svenska stödet finansierar den sista komponenten och syftar till att producera skuggrapporten inför kommande granskning. Sida ska finansiera de experter inom civilsamhället som ska samla data, analysera datan och skriva själva alternativrapporten. Insatsen ska koordineras av Ethiopian Lawyers Association och uppgår till en total kostnad om 339,000 SEK. Insatsen ska genomföras under perioden maj till augusti 2018. Sida has been approached by the Ethiopian Lawyers' Association (ELA) to get funding for one component of an ongoing Project that is implemented under the auspices of the UN High Commissioner's office for Human Rights, East Africa Regional office. This Project has been co-funded by the European Union and other donor embassies since 2016. The overall Project has 3 Components:

1. Developing a practical monitoring tool to monitor the implementation of the Uninversal Periodic Review(UPR) recommendations accepted by Ethiopia in 2014; 
2. Launching joint research by CSOs and state universities to generate evidence on the status of human rights situation in Ethiopia; and
3. The establishemnt of a CSO Working Group (WG) to monitor the UPR recommendations and prepare a CSO parallel report for Ethiopia's third UPR in 2019.

The current intervention will focus on the third Component. The CSO WG mentioned in component 3 has already been established.Under this intervention, the task of the WG will be to draft a comprehensive parallel report which critically evaluates the steps taken by Ethiopia to implement recommendations it has accepted in the second UPR. Sida's contribution is intended to cover the cost for technical support required to produce the report, namely to hire experts who will be involved in data collection, analysis and write up of the UPR report in the thematic area. ELA has applied for funding of 339,000 SEK that will be channeled by Sida as a one time grant in 2018. The same component of the project is also expected to be funded by Irish Aid with an amount of 92,000 SEK. The total amount of the intervention is SEK 431,000. 

As a background information, the UPR is a UN human rights mechanism under the auspices of the Human Rights Council, designed to facilitate periodic peer review of the human rights performance of all UN member states. The Ethiopian government as a UN member state will submit a report to the UPR process. CSOs are also presented with the opportunity to submit a parallel report on the human rights situation in Ethiopia. This is an important aspect of the UPR process as it provides an alternative and current information on the human rights situation on the ground. It also creates and avenue for constructive engagement and collaboration between states and CSOs working on human rights issues.

In the ethiopian context, due to the legal restriction on CSOs working on right issues, this process creates a rare opportunity for such CSOs to air their voice and highlight the human rights situation of the country. It also allows them to engage and collaborate with the government. However, the CSOs working in this area lack technical expertise and adequate staffing to allow them to carry out a report that meets the desired standard. It is from this perspective that ELA is soliciting the support of Sida, which is intended, as mentioned above, to cover the technical support of experts during data collection, analyisis and write up of the UPR report in the selected thematic areas. The Universal Periodic Review (UPR) is a UN Human Rights mechanism under the auspices of the Human Rights Council (HRC), designed to facilitate periodic peer review of the human rights performance of all UN member states.

Accordingly, the main objective of this contribution was to support CSOs to draft a comprehensive  parallel report which critically evaluates the steps taken by Ethiopia to implement recommendations it has accepted in the 2nd Universal Periodic Review (UPR) in 2014. This report will also highlight important Human Rights developments since then to feed into Ethiopia's 3rd UPR that was scheduled for February 2019.

In addition to submitting a joint parallel report for Ethiopia's UPR session the Task force seeks to engage with members states of the UN Human Rights Council and other stakeholders, using the UPR mechanism as an instrument of advocacy.