European Parliament resolution on the human rights situation in Ethiopia
Date: 2005-07-07
Institutions: European Parliament
Subjects: Ethiopia, election, human rights, political crisis, political situation, political violence, repression

6.7.2006

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 157 E/495

Thursday 7 July 2005

2.

Stresses that adoptions should only be carried by governmental bodies and non-profit organisations;

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Calls on Guatemala to enact specific legislation on adoptions, to apply the Hague Convention on
Intercountry Adoption, and to adopt suitable measures to prevent profiteering from international adoptions;

Urges the Public Prosecutor's Office to take out penal proceedings against the criminal networks

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trafficking in children;

Calls for the launching of a global plan of priority actions aimed at children and adolescents in Latin

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America, in line with Unicef measures;

Calls on the Government of Guatemala to take the necessary measures to ensure that murders of

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women no longer go unpunished, and to take a proactive stand on women's rights;

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Calls on the government of Guatemala to support the actions of the Office of the Counsel for Human
Rights, recognise the legitimacy of the work of human rights activists and ensure their protection, and
investigate the recent cases of attacks on the headquarters of social organisations;

8. Welcomes President Berger's declarations regarding abolition of the death penalty, recalling that there
are currently 35 persons on death row, and calls on the Guatemalan Congress to undertake the reforms
needed to remove capital punishment from the national legal system; calls for measures to be taken against
lynchings;

9. Welcomes the initiative of the Government of Guatemala in promoting the establishment of the Office
of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, and congratulates the Government and Congress on their
ratification of the corresponding Convention;

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Calls on all authorities to cooperate as closely as possible with that Office, so as to enable it to fully
implement its observation and advice mission; calls on the Commission to provide economic and political
support to facilitate the Office's full implementation of its mandate;

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Repeats its recommendation to the Commission, as made in its resolution of 10 April 2003, that the
EU's future strategy for Guatemala for 2007-2013 should include social cohesion, the right to food, rural
development and reform of the system of landholding and land use, as priority areas for future EU coop-
eration policy; this policy should also lay stress on eliminating illegal adoptions, firm support for human
rights, ending impunity, respect for the rights of indigenous peoples, and promotion and protection of
women's rights and the rights of the child;

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Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Council, the Commission, the UN Secretary-
General, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, and the Government and Parliament of Guatemala.

P6_TA(2005)0305

Human rights in Ethiopia

European Parliament resolution on the human rights situation in Ethiopia

The European Parliament,

— having regard to its previous resolutions on Ethiopia,

— having regard to Rule 115(5) of its Rules of Procedure,

A. having regard to the violent repression of protest demonstrations on 8 June 2005 following the post-
ponement of the announcement of the final results of the general elections on 15 May 2005, which left
36 dead, more than 100 injured and led to thousands of arrests,

B. whereas, under Ethiopian law, any arrested person must be brought before a court within 48 hours,

C. whereas up until then the electoral process had not seen any major incidents, and the Ethiopian popu-
lation's faith in democracy had been demonstrated by the participation of around 90 % of the electorate
in the vote on 15 May 2005,

C 157 E/496

Thursday 7 July 2005

Official Journal of the European Union

EN

6.7.2006

D. whereas 299 complaints of fraud were lodged with the electoral commission, which decided to open an

inquiry in 135 constituencies,

E. whereas, following these inquiries, a recount or even new elections may be ordered in some consti-

tuencies,

F. whereas the announcement of the final results, scheduled first for 8 June 2005, then for 8 July 2005,

will have to be postponed again pending the outcome of the hearing of the complaints,

G. whereas voting in the election of 23 MPs for the Somali region is scheduled for August 2005,

H. whereas the government and the opposition parties,

in a joint statement issued on 10 June 2005,

undertook to ‘seek for a resolution to all the problems by legal and peaceful means’,

I. whereas the political stability of Ethiopia is crucial to all the countries in the Horn of Africa,

Condemns the violent repression of civilians, opposition leaders and supporters and the killing of at

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least 36 persons;

Expresses its fullest sympathy and solidarity to the people of Ethiopia and presents its condolences to

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the victims' families;

Hopes that an impartial commission of inquiry will determine who was responsible for the tragic turn

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of events on 8 June 2005 and that the persons in question will be brought to justice;

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Calls for the freeing of journalists and others who are held without charge, and for those arrested to
be treated in strict conformity with Ethiopian law and the Ethiopian Constitution, in accordance with inter-
national law on human rights;

5. Welcomes the recent release of some 4 000 detainees and the government's announcement that the
detainees at the Ziway military camp will now have access to their families and to the International Com-
mittee of the Red Cross; in this context, underlines the key role that can and must be played by the Com-
mittee in assisting detainees and investigating human rights conditions in prisons;

6. Welcomes the fact that opposition groups and international observers are able to be present when the
electoral complaints are examined, with a view to arriving at uncontested results;

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Insists that the agreement of 10 June 2005 between the government and opposition parties be scrupu-
lously respected, and hopes that the European Union will continue to contribute to a peaceful and demo-
cratic solution to the Ethiopian political crisis, in particular by supplying observers to the examination of
the electoral complaints;

8.
Calls on the Union and the international community to stay vigilant and to do their utmost to con-
tribute to a peaceful solution to the current tensions and not to allow the Ethiopian democratisation process
to come to a halt;

9.
Calls on the Ethiopian government to put an immediate end to the restriction of reporting of opposi-
tion activities and messages in public media and calls for a code of conduct for the press to be put in place
rapidly in consultation with the media;

Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Council, the Commission and the government

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of Ethiopia.