Ethiopia lessons in repression: violations of academic problems, HRW

V. DENIAL OF TEACHERS’ FREEDOM OF ASSOCIATION
It is a professional association, not a political party! But I don’t know what will happen in the
future. There is a risk that a civil servant can lose his job for opposing education policy. In the
[July 2002 mandatory teachers] conference they said that all civil servants are employed at the
will of the government and the ruling party.
—Ethiopian teacher, July 30, 2002.
The Ethiopian Teachers’ Association (ETA), essentially banned by the government, has continued to
struggle to protect of the rights of teachers in the face of sustained harassment for the past ten years. In addition
to ETA’s vocal criticism of education policy, the organization’s membership includes some of Ethiopia’s most
influential citizens, and apparently is considered as threatening for this reason. A foreign professor currently
residing and teaching in Ethiopia explained why, in his opinion, teachers have been singled out for persecution.
“Teachers are one of the largest groups in Ethiopia, the best educated, and the most liberal.” 163 ETA is active in
ten of twelve regional states, with the exceptions of Tigray and Somali regions, and has 80,000 registered
members out of an estimated 120,000 teachers in more than 6,000 schools nationwide. 164
The Ethiopian government’s curtailment of educators’ freedom of association has not escaped
international censure. Since 1996, the government’s continuing interference with the ETA’s freedom of
association has elicited criticism from the International Labor Organization (ILO) every year. In addition, on
several occasions the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has criticized
the government’s mistreatment of the ETA, the resulting impact on educational policy, and the poor status of
Ethiopian teachers. 165
In March 1993—less than one year after the ETA submitted a memorandum to the Transitional
Government of Ethiopia outlining its demands for better treatment of teachers, including that teachers participate
in shaping education—the government registered a new association under the same name as ETA and anointed it
the official teachers’ union. 166 Since then, the government has continuously pressured teachers to participate in
the “new” ETA rather than the old one, frozen the original ETA’s assets, and arrested numerous teachers and ETA
leaders including then Acting Secretary General Shimalis Zewdie and president of the association Dr. Taye
Woldesmayet in 1996. Assefa Maru, acting director of ETA after Taye’s imprisonment, was assassinated in May
1997. 167 Shimalis died in April 1999. His health had reportedly been weakened when he was detained yet again
and spent one month in prison without charge in September 1998 for refusing to hand over ETA offices and
papers to the new ETA. 168
Dr. Taye, who had been in prison since 1996 and was convicted of conspiracy against the state in 1999,
was released in May 2002 after an appellate court reduced his sentence to less than the time he had already
served. 169 Since then, Dr. Taye has declared that he intends to remain active. “Unless the life of teachers is
improved, there is no hope for our children,” he told the BBC. 170 Taye was first arrested by the current
government in 1992, on the spurious charge of having fomented religious strife. The arrest came shortly after he
163 Human Rights Watch interview, Addis Ababa, July 18, 2002.
164 Human Rights Watch interview with Abate Angore, July 15, 2002.
165 Joint ILO/UNESCO Committee of Experts on the Application of the Recommendation concerning the Status of Teachers,
Report of the Seventh Session (2000), Appendix C.
166 In some cases, the new ETA even acts on the government’s behalf to intimidate teachers exercising their political rights.
See, e.g., confidential communication dated April 25, 2002 (in Amharic).
167 Human Rights Watch, “Curtailment of Rights,” pp. 36-41.
168 Education International, “Death of ETA Acting General Secretary Shimalis Zewdie,” April 29, 1999.
169 Amnesty International, “Dr. Taye Wolde-Semayat Released!” May 14, 2002; Nita Bhalla, “Freed Ethiopian dissident to
fight on,” BBC News, June 11, 2002.
170 Human Rights Watch interview, Addis Ababa, July 20, 2002; Bhalla, “Freed Ethiopian Dissident. . .”
Human Rights Watch
32
January 2003, Vol. 15,No. 2 (A)