Source · Select Committees · International Development Committee
Recommendation 21
21
We welcome the statement by the G7 group condemning the killing of civilians, sexual and...
Recommendation
We welcome the statement by the G7 group condemning the killing of civilians, sexual and gender-based violence, indiscriminate shelling and forced displacement of civilian populations. We recommend that the UK Government uses its long-standing diplomatic and development relationship with Ethiopia to ensure the Ethiopian Government acts on its responsibility to protect its population from violence, and works to ensure the immediate protection of communities in the region from human rights abuses, including sexual violence. The UK Government must use all diplomatic means possible to remind the Government of Ethiopia that, under the principle of the responsibility to protect, it is responsible for protecting its populations from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity. The UK Government should bear in mind its obligations to take appropriate action in line with the UN Genocide Convention should the Ethiopian Government fail to take the actions it needs to take to protect its people.
Government Response
Not Addressed
HM Government
Not Addressed
The Foreign Secretary, Minister for Africa and our Ambassador in Addis continue to raise human rights issues in their discussions with the Ethiopian government. We have been clear that civilians must be protected and the violence must stop. The UK’s longstanding position is that any determination of genocide is an issue for competent courts, rather than governments. Our focus is on securing an end to violence and protecting civilians. The UK will support the UN Office for the High Commissioner for Human Rights to ensure that their joint investigations with the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission into atrocities in Tigray are independent, transparent and impartial and that those responsible for human rights violations and abuses are held to account. The UK voiced its concerns on the situation in Tigray at the 25 May UNSC discussion on the Protection of Civilians in Conflict, and will again raise Tigray at the forthcoming 47th session of the Human Rights Council.