The Fading Promise: Ethiopia’s Reversed Course On Human Rights

As the world commemorated the annual Human Rights Day on December 10 under the theme ”Human Rights, Our Everyday Essentials”, Ethiopia faces a profound moment of reflection shaped by the soaring hopes of 2018 and the sobering realities that have unfolded since. When Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed (PhD) rose to power in April 2018, Ethiopians and international observers alike saw the possibility of a democratic renaissance. Reforms once unimaginable—release of political prisoners, legalization of banned opposition groups, opening of civic space, and peace with Eritrea—signaled what many believed would be a historic departure from decades of authoritarian governance.

Seven years later, however, the optimism that defined the premier’s first months in office has been tempered, if not eclipsed, by a troubling reversal. A December 2025 report by The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, a joint initiative of the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and the World Organization Against Torture (OMCT), as well successive reports by the state-appointed Ethiopian Human Rights Commission and other human rights advocates capture the starkness of this transformation. The reports document a sustained crackdown on activists, journalists, and civil society organizations, painting a picture that contrasts sharply with the reformist narrative that once earned global praise for the Prime Minister’s administration.

The story of Ethiopia’s human rights landscape since 2018 is not linear. It is a story of two radically different trajectories: one of early expansion of freedoms, and another of painful contraction as conflict and political fragmentation reshaped the state’s calculus of power. Understanding this duality is essential to charting a path forward. Prime Minister Abiy’s initial reforms were not superficial. They were sweeping and transformative enough to earn him the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize. Prisons were opened. Exiled opposition figures returned. Media outlets flourished. Civil society organizations began to breathe after years of suffocation under a restrictive legal regime. The digital space exploded with new voices, activism, and political engagement.

But beneath the surface, Ethiopia remained a nation layered with unresolved structural tensions characterized by ethno-centric federalism without consensus, competing nationalisms, deep historical grievances, and a security apparatus long accustomed to impunity. Though the opening of political space engendered hopes, it also unleashed rivalries that the state was ill-prepared to mediate peacefully. The outbreak of the Tigray conflict in November 2020 marked a definitive turning point. During the two-year war Ethiopia witnessed some of the gravest human rights violations in its modern history. Reports by international and local human rights organizations—detailing mass atrocities, sexual violence, forced displacement, and arbitrary detention, among others—have left deep scars on the national conscience. Other regions, from Oromia to Amhara to Benishangul Gumuz, have endured cycles of violence that continue to claim lives and displace communities.

It is in this volatile political environment that the crackdown on human rights defenders intensified. Despite the government’s strenuous denial, its actions reveal a pattern of harassment, surveillance, arbitrary arrests, digital intimidation, and administrative restrictions targeting those who document abuses or challenge official narratives. The country that once applauded dissent as part of its democratic rebirth has increasingly framed criticism as a threat to stability or sovereignty. Journalists have been detained on allegations of disinformation or terrorism. Civil society organizations reporting on conflict-related abuses face bureaucratic stonewalling or threats. Regional authorities, empowered by emergency measures, have arrested activists with little or no legal process. Once a space for vibrant debate, social media have increasingly become a battleground of state monitoring and aggressive content manipulation.

This deterioration cannot be divorced from Ethiopia’s broader crisis of governance. The state is confronted with enormous challenges: rebuilding communities shattered by war, managing deep-seated political fractures, stabilizing an economy strained by inflation and debt, and navigating a volatile regional environment. Yet none of these challenges justify the suppression of human rights defenders. On the contrary, their work is indispensable to rebuilding trust, exposing truth, and preventing future abuses. Human rights are not luxuries to be suspended during instability; they are the foundation of any path back to stability. Ethiopia’s recent history is itself proof of this. Where civic space shrinks, conflict thrives. Where voices are silenced, grievances harden. Where accountability evaporates, the seeds of future violence are sown.

As Human Rights Day is observed across the world, the government has an opportunity and indeed an obligation to reaffirm its early promises by resetting its relationship with civil society and human rights defenders. This requires concrete steps: ending arbitrary detentions; ensuring due process; protecting journalists; enabling independent investigations into wartime and peacetime abuses; reforming security institutions; and creating political space for dissent, advocacy, and dialogue. International partners, for their part, must support—not supplant—domestic efforts for justice and political reconciliation, while consistently insisting that human rights remain non-negotiable.

Ethiopia is not condemned to repeat the cycles of its past. The aspirations that the 2018 reforms gave rise to have not disappeared; they have merely been overshadowed. They can be rekindled if the country recommits to a human rights agenda grounded in accountability, openness, and the protection of those courageous enough to defend the dignity of others. The celebration of Human Rights Day should serve not as a symbolic gesture, but as a reminder that if Ethiopia’s future is to be peaceful, democratic, and united it depends on safeguarding the very freedoms that once inspired a nation and the world.