Ethiopia Needs to Use Principles of International Law to Fend off Pressure: A Political Scholar
Ethiopia has to strictly exercise the principles of international law during its relations with international institutions controlled by powerful Western states to fend off the external pressure and interference on the country, Addis Ababa University Political Science and International Relations (PSIR) Lecturer, Solomon Mebrie said.
The scholar believes that TPLF terrorist group has shamelessly built a network when it controlled power for 27 years, deceiving and misinforming external institutions, including the United Nations and European Union systems.
Thus, the lecturer suggested that the Government of Ethiopia has to stick to the principles of international law while carrying out external relations with states and international institutions to fend off politically motivated decisions to pressure and interfere in the internal affairs of Ethiopia.
According to him, the currently adopted UN Human Rights Council decisions on Ethiopia disrupted the principle of international law as it was not based on cooperation with the Government of Ethiopia which was cooperative and taking action even during challenging situations.
“Therefore, seeking the cooperation of the government of Ethiopia is important than pushing the government aside and creating a fertile ground for confrontation because these mechanisms are meant to be cooperative and to be fair,” Solomon said.
Institutions controlled by powerful Western countries owe their own interests, the lecturer noted, but the relations have to be based on respecting the principles of international law, including the principle of the equal sovereign state, to resist pressure and interference.
The terrorist TPLF looted billions from this country and stashed it away to build a network and expand influence to misinform even the UN and EU systems to pressure and interfere in Ethiopian affairs, he observed.
“It’s shameful to see those UN officials, EU officials, its different agencies, being hijacked and used by an unlikely, vicious, atrocious actor as TPLF. That, in my opinion, is the root cause of these problems, the media campaign and everything,” Solomon underscored.
The lecturer recalled that the UN Human Rights Council was established in 2006 replacing the Commission on Human Rights reforming criticisms of politicization and bias, but it is resorting to the old practice.
“One of the purposes of reforming the commission by changing into the council was to overcome the problems it was blamed for politicization and bias. Unfortunately, it’s again back to the old practice there are interests, using the governments and the institutions.”
The rights body was being used as an instrument to advance the interests of Western countries during the cold war and persisted even during the post-cold-war, he added.
Source: Ethiopia News Agency