Ethiopia: Deputy Chief Commissioner Among Two EHRC Officials Resigning Before End of Term

Deputy Chief Commissioner of the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission (EHRC), Rakeb Melese, and Commissioner for Women, Children, Persons with Disabilities, and Older Persons, Rigbe Gebrehawaria, have formally submitted their letters of resignation, according to a report by BBC.

According to the report, the commissioners submitted their resignation letters to the House of Peoples' Representatives last week, along with the required three-month notice.

Sources within the Commission told the BBC that the senior commissioners were "pushed" to resign due to the Chief Commissioner's "leadership style."

The new Chief Commissioner, Berhanu Adelo, was appointed by the House of People's Representatives on 30 January 2025, filling the position left vacant since Daniel Bekele (PhD) stepped down in July 2024. Rakeb Melese, who had been serving as Deputy Commissioner, assumed the role of Acting Chief Commissioner.

A source told the BBC that the Commission previously followed a participatory decision-making process. However, in recent months, this approach has been sidelined, leaving employees and senior leadership uninformed about key decisions. The source indicated that this shift could be one of the reasons behind the commissioners' resignations.

According to BBC sources, the decision-making process within the Commission's structures. They noted that in recent months, the institution has enforced unclear employee reassignments without consultation or transparency.

Sources describing this leadership style as "incompatible with human rights" told the BBC that, over the past six months, five directors have been reassigned from their positions without clear explanations.

Deputy Chief Commissioner Rakeb Melese and Commissioner Rigbe Gebrehawaria were appointed during a special session of the House of Peoples' Representatives held on June 25, 2021. Their resignations come amid ongoing changes within the Commission.

The resignation comes a month after Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed accused the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission (EHRC) of issuing biased reports in recent years. In the fourth part of an interview series with Ethiopian Television, Prime Minister Abiy stated that the EHRC had been issuing reports against the Ethiopian government "in a distorted manner" over the past three to four years. He added that his government had "silently overlooked" the commission's "biased" reports for the sake of institutional building.

Read the original article on Addis Standard.