Worancha ወራንቻ

In its 2013 report, the U.S Department of State has put the spotlight on the issue of human rights violations in Ethiopia, notably those effecting women, children and minorities. The report details stringent new accountability requirements directed at the Government of Ethiopia in a new 2014 bill. Below is an article published by   the  Ogaden News Agency : The U.S. Department of State’s 2013 report has revealed the human rights violations in Ethiopia. The reports states that one of the major violations in Ethiopia has been on “Freedom of Speech and Assembly.”The report said the human rights violations included arbitrary killings; allegations of torture, beating, abuse, and mistreatment of detainees by security forces; reports of harsh and, at times, life-threatening prison conditions; arbitrary arrest and detention; detention without charge and lengthy pre trial detention; a weak, overburdened judiciary subject to political influence; infringement on citizens’ privacy rights,

A serious gender imbalance in global education has left over 100 million young women in low and lower middle income countries unable to read a single sentence, and will prevent half of the 31 million girls out of school from ever enrolling. These are among the main findings of the Gender Summary, which analyses data from the latest edition of UNESCO Education for All Global Monitoring Report. The new summary, launched for International Women's Day in partnership with the United Nations Girls Education Initiative (UNGEI), calls for equity to be at the forefront of new global development goals after 2015 so that every child has an equal chance of learning through quality education. Despite some progress, in 2011, only 60% of countries had achieved parity in primary education and only 38% of countries had achieved parity in secondary education. Among low income countries, just 20% had achieved gender parity at the primary level, 10% at the lower secondary level and 8% at the upper

Between June and August, a large number of ethnic Sidama were arrested in the SNNP region. This was reportedly in response to further calls for separate regional statehood for the Sidama. A number of arrests took place in August around the celebration of Fichee, the Sidama New Year. Many of those arrested were detained briefly, then released. But a number of leading community figures remained in detention and were charged with crimes against the state. Ethiopia Head of state Girma Wolde-Giorgis Head of government Hailemariam Desalegn (replaced Meles Zenawi in August) Background Freedom of expression Human rights defenders Torture and other ill-treatment Arbitrary arrests and detentions Excessive use of force Conflict in the Somali region Forced evictions The state stifled freedom of expression, severely restricting the activities of the independent media, political opposition parties and human rights organizations. Dissent was not

Ethiopia 2.16 Intermarriage between Conflicting Groups: The Case of the Arsi Oromo and the Sidama (Girma Negash) The basic objectives of this study can be summarized as follows:       1. To bring to light and properly document the age-long intermarriage between the Arsi and the Sidama about whom little seem to be known thus far.       2. To investigate the puzzling paradox how two peoples who perceive one another as enemy, and often at war with each other, happen to intermarry.       3. To identify specific reasons that induced Arsi-Sidama neighbours to look for a partner from a hostile group.       4. To analyse the attitude of members of the two respective communities towards such cross-border marriages.       5. To examine the progress of the intermarriage issue in a time perspective.       6. To investigate the possible impact of this intermarriage on the conflict between the Arsi and the Sidama. In pursuance of the outlined objectives of the study, a qualitative method of

By OPride Staff (OPride) – Paul Trevor William Baxter, who spent nearly six decades studying the Oromo, has died this week i n a hospital in Stockport, England , his grandson Mark Baxter confirmed to OPride on Tuesday. Baxter is survived by his loving wife of 69 years, Pat, his son Adam as well as four grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. His elder son, Tim, unfortunately predeceased him. Baxter began his anthropological study in the early 1950s as a graduate student, combining academic analysis, field research and unconventional insights about imperial Ethiopia into his work. In 1978, Baxter published his seminal article “Ethiopia’s Unacknowledged Problem: the Oromo” in the esteemed British Journal African Affairs . As his long time friend and colleague Bonnie K. Holcomb, Senior Research Associate at George Washington University’s Institute for Communitarian Policy Studies explains, “ with that act, he lent his intellectual and moral support as an established and