To successfully ship justice for worldwide crimes, an unbiased worldwide cooperation unit is important.
Ethiopia is drafting transitional justice legal guidelines to deal with previous and ongoing abuses by way of legal accountability, truth-seeking, reparations and institutional reform.
One of many draft legal guidelines establishes a Particular Prosecutor’s Workplace (SPO, or what is likely to be referred to as a Transitional Justice Prosecutor’s Workplace) to analyze and prosecute these most accountable for core worldwide crimes and different grave offences equivalent to rape. In Ethiopia’s draft legislation, worldwide crimes embrace genocide, conflict crimes, crimes towards humanity, torture and enforced disappearances.
The proposed SPO can be required to seek for, determine, and prosecute alleged perpetrators outdoors Ethiopia’s jurisdiction or international nationals implicated in crimes below its authority. Going after fugitive offenders is a posh activity. Figuring out their whereabouts might not at all times be attainable utilizing typical means. In these circumstances, the draft legislation permits the SPO to incentivise informants to offer essential intelligence.
Equally difficult is securing extradition and accountability for these perpetrators. When extradition requests are denied – typically because of the quite a few authorized grounds for refusal invoked by the requested state – the SPO ought to attempt to persuade and assist third-party states to prosecute offenders below common jurisdiction or different relevant authorized doctrines. This requires sustained collaboration with worldwide stakeholders and international nations.
Recognising these difficulties, states adopted a world cooperation treaty in 2024 – the Ljubljana-The Hague Conference. The treaty is designed to reinforce cross-border collaboration in investigating and prosecuting crimes akin to people who Ethiopia’s SPO will handle.
But, whereas it’s geared up with some specialised divisions, the proposed SPO lacks a key division to successfully discharge its mandate: a devoted worldwide cooperation unit.
Such a unit, geared up with satisfactory sources, technical experience, vetted consultants and a powerful institutional mandate, is important for at the very least three causes: the Eritrean dimension of transitional justice, Ethiopia’s historical past of coping with fugitive offenders, and the SPO’s independence.
First, in contrast to the post-1991 prosecutions of Dergue-era crimes, which focused solely Ethiopian nationals, the brand new SPO is predicted to analyze non-Ethiopian perpetrators, significantly Eritreans accused of atrocities dedicated in the course of the Tigray conflict.
Eritrea’s authorities has traditionally resisted cooperation in issues of accountability. In the course of the post-1991 trials, it refused to share navy communiqués and different proof with Ethiopian prosecutors, even when requests didn’t contain prosecuting Eritrean nationals. This lack of cooperation, stated the post-1991 SPO report, hindered Ethiopia’s efforts to prosecute conflict crimes.
Given this precedent, having no devoted worldwide cooperation mechanism dangers signalling an absence of dedication to holding Eritrean offenders accountable. A world cooperation unit might assist facilitate diplomatic engagements, safe proof, and advocate for Eritrean perpetrators to be prosecuted in Ethiopia, Eritrea, or a third-party jurisdiction.
Second, Ethiopia’s previous challenges with extradition and transnational justice spotlight the necessity for a devoted worldwide cooperation division within the new SPO. The post-1991 Dergue trials led to many in absentia prosecutions because of the excessive variety of fugitives. A complete of two 188 of 5 119 defendants have been tried in absentia. Twenty of the 73 high-ranking Dergue officers prosecuted in ‘Mengistu et al.’ have been absent from the proceedings, together with Mengistu Haile Mariam himself.
The Dergue trials normalised in absentia prosecutions, not as a result of Ethiopian legislation inspired them, however as a result of worldwide cooperation failed. Ethiopian legal legislation normally treats these as a measure of final resort. It imposes an obligation on the prosecuting authority to seek for fugitives and request extradition earlier than prosecuting of their absence.
A former member of the post-1991 SPO informed ISS At present that the shortage of a devoted worldwide cooperation unit meant prosecutors couldn’t actively safe extradition for any high-profile fugitives. Within the post-1991 SPO’s historical past, solely Melaku Teferra was handed over by Djibouti from its consulate in Ethiopia.
Furthermore, the post-1991 SPO didn’t prosecute Ethiopian fugitives in different nations. America’s trials of former Dergue members like Kelbessa Negewo (below the Alien Tort Claims Act), and Mergia Negussie Habteyes and Mezemr Abebe Belayneh (for immigration fraud), weren’t due to Ethiopia’s efforts. Equally, the conflict crimes conviction of Eshetu Alemu within the Netherlands occurred after the post-1991 SPO closed down in 2010 on completion of its mandate.
Analysis revealed the ineffectiveness of the post-1991 SPO course of in monitoring fugitives, even in Ethiopia. Some people convicted in absentia within the Dergue trials later resurfaced, claiming they have been by no means knowledgeable of the proceedings towards them. Some died earlier than their trials even started.
Expertise with the Dergue trials additionally reveals that Ethiopia’s restricted extradition requests have been denied as a consequence of an absence of bilateral or multilateral treaties governing such cooperation. The SPO on the time made no important effort to deal with this deficiency.
Ethiopia nonetheless lacks extradition treaties with a number of key jurisdictions and has not signed the Ljubljana-The Hague Conference. An unbiased worldwide cooperation unit might advocate for authorized reforms and shut these gaps.
Moreover, in comparison with its predecessor, the brand new SPO would seemingly face much more fugitive offenders. The protracted nature of the transitional justice course of – already spanning over six years – might need given alleged perpetrators time to flee the nation.
Provided that the jurisdiction of the proposed new SPO encompasses crimes dedicated over greater than three a long time – twice the temporal scope of the post-1991 SPO – the variety of implicated people residing overseas is probably going a lot increased.
Third, whereas Ethiopia’s Justice Ministry has a world cooperation unit, it is not structured to fulfill the brand new SPO’s calls for. The draft legislation makes the SPO accountable to Parliament to make sure its independence. However the ministry’s common worldwide cooperation division lacks such independence, remaining accountable to the manager department. If the common cooperation unit handles SPO issues, that might threat undermining the SPO’s independence.
Not having a devoted worldwide cooperation unit within the new SPO represents a essential hole in Ethiopia’s proposed transitional justice framework, and will undermine its credibility.
Establishing an unbiased, specialised unit would enhance the supply of justice for worldwide crime, and have an enduring influence on Ethiopia’s judicial system. It will switch information and experience to the common prosecution division, extending its advantages past its mandate and time period.
Tadesse Simie Metekia, Senior Researcher, Rule of legislation, ISS Addis Ababa
