No African nation has backed a European Union-sponsored petition urging the UN Human Rights Council to hold a special session on Ethiopia, an official in Addis Ababa has suggested.
The move by the UNHRC to hold a special session on Ethiopia next Friday puts its neutrality into question and is a confirmation that the institution is a political tool, said Kebede Desissa, State Minister of the Government Communications Service (GCS) in a press briefing on Wednesday.
The list of participating countries is dominated by 40 European nations along with the likes of the United States, Canada and Australia.
African countries seem to be in solidarity with Ethiopia, he said.
“The UNHCR Special session implies the partiality of the organization and it being an agent of hidden political intentions,” he said.
He added that it was regrettable that the UN Human Rights Council has turned a deaf ear to the atrocities committed blamed on the rebel Tigray People’s Liberation Front against innocent civilians in the regions of Amhara and Afar.
The Ethiopian government earlier this week called on members of the UN Human Rights Council to categorically reject and vote against a proposed special session and what it called its politically motivated outcomes.
Some likened the special session on Ethiopia to the ‘Berlin Conference’ after the list of 50 countries that called for it became public.
Not a single African or Afro Caribbean nation has signed up to the petition, APA has learnt.
MG/as/APA