At the invitation of the Government of Ethiopia, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Prince Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein of Jordan is set to visit Addis Ababa for four days starting tomorrow.
In the capital, he is expected to meet with the Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed (PhD), who has been in the spotlight for his endorsement of moderate policies towards the democratization of the nation and on human rights, echoing the sentiment of Al Hussein when he visited Ethiopia last year.
“I am convinced the Ethiopian Government will find it most important and productive to invest in the rights of the people, which builds strong and safe societies,” he announced at a press conference last year. “I strongly believe economic, social and cultural rights are inseparable from civil and political rights. If one set of rights advances while another set of rights are not given the attention, the social pressure which may result can be dramatic.”
The commissioner was invited by former Prime Minister Hailemariam Dessalegn earlier this year as a follow-up to his visit last year where he called for a “more substantive, stable and open democratic space for all its (Ethiopian) people”.
In Ethiopia, he will have an audience with the political leadership of the nation including: the Speaker of the House of Peoples’ Representative – Muferiat Kemal—the first women in the position and with the leadership of the African Union including its chairperson – Moussa Faki Mahamat.
He is set to give a speech at the United Nations High-Level Dialogue on Human Rights conference inside the compound of the African Union. He is also expected to give a human rights lecture at Addis Ababa University.
The commissioner has promised to help empower the local entity of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human rights and use it as an empowered hub to support and improve various stakeholders across the region from Addis Ababa.
