6. RECOMMENDATIONS AND APPEALS

I. TO: INDIVIDUALS, LOCAL HUMAN RIGHTS AND                  HUMANITARIAN ORGANIZATIONS

The Ogaden Human Rights Committee requests individuals, local human rights and humanitarian organizations to support its efforts to promote and improve the human rights cause in the Ogaden, and recommends the following:

Please write to your Foreign Ministry:

·        Asking that your government exerts pressure on Ethiopia to improve its human rights record.

·        Urging that all political prisoners be either immediately and unconditionally released or charged with recognized criminal offences, and given fair trials; and be given unrestricted and regular access to their family members and to representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross (name some or all from those listed below).

·        Expressing concern at the disappearance of a large number of suspected government opponents in the notorious military detention camps throughout the Ogaden, and asking their whereabouts (name some or all from those listed below).

·        Asking your government to support the Ogaden Human Rights Committee’s efforts to appoint a UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights as well as sending a fact-finding mission to the Ogaden.

Please copy your letter to diplomatic representatives of Ethiopia accredited to your country as well as the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. The address is:

United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights

                        Palais des Nations

                        1211 Geneva 10

                        Switzerland

II. TO: GOVERNMENTS, UNITED NATIONS, INTERNATIONAL

HUMAN RIGHTS AND NON-GOVERNMENTAL                           HUMANITARIAN ORGANIZATIONS

Although the prestigious international human rights organization, Amnesty International has issued several reports about well documented human rights violations in the Ogaden by Ethiopia, the international community has remained tight-lipped about those violations for the last five years. Nevertheless, the Ogaden Human Rights Committee had not given up hope of the international community’s help to force Ethiopia to honour its commitments to internationally accepted human rights principles. Hence, the OHRC requests and recommends that:

1.      The International community publicly censure Ethiopia over its human rights recode.

2.      The United Nations appoint a Special Rapporteur for Human Rights in the Ogaden.

3.      The Ethiopian government should be held responsible for infamous mass killings, disappearances, arbitrary arrests, torture and other cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment.

4.      Perpetrators of extrajudicial executions and other atrocities should be brought before an international tribunal.

5.      The international community intervene to stop human sufferings and senseless carnage in the Ogaden, the sooner the better.

6.      The Ethiopian government allow all humanitarian and relief organizations to operate in the Ogaden without restrictions as well as international human rights organizations and international press.

7.      The international community refrain from aiding and supporting the Ethiopian government as long as it violates human rights and fundamental freedoms in the empire-state of Ethiopia.