Event Description
Join the Public International Law & Policy Group (PILPG) and eyeWitness to Atrocities on April 10 for a 1-hour Knowledge Sharing Session on Amhara Human Rights Documentation.
The armed conflict in the Amhara region of Ethiopia has continued to cause grave violations of human rights, including crimes against humanity and war crimes. There have been reports of the use of heavy weapons, including drones, targeting civilians, cultural and religious sites and critical public infrastructure, causing significant casualties and destruction. While the grievances of the Amhara people date back to more than three decades, the gravity of the atrocities and destruction have reached an unprecedented levels over the past five years.
The armed conflict between the Government of Ethiopia and the Fano - popular armed resistance, began in April 2023, followed by a declaration of a state of emergency and a sweeping imposition of communications blackouts, political crackdown, as well as ethnic based killings, displacement and destruction. There has been widespread international condemnations of those atrocities and calls for an independent investigation.
While Amhara documenters are collecting evidence of the atrocities committed against Amharas over the past thirty years, including the past five years, the ongoing hostilities pose significant challenges to the safe and secure storage and submission of their documentation. The communications blockout, arrests of journalists and lack of access to the Amhara region also make the collection and protection of evidence challenging.
The aim of this webinar is to help enable civilians to collect evidences and relevant documents in a way that would maximize the possibility for their eventual use in domestic, regional, and international investigations, criminal proceedings, and transitional justice processes. Experts will share their best practices for human rights documentation collection and management, as well as options for submission in the context of ongoing conflict.
This session is designed to best meet the needs of Amhara documenters operating in Ethiopia, and as such, PILPG strongly encourages the submission of questions relating to human rights documentation in advance of this session. PILPG will endeavor to answer these questions during the session. Questions can also be submitted during the live session through the Q&A function.
This is part of the PILPG Thought Leadership Initiative. The Initiative focuses on prominent international law and international affairs topics and organizes monthly expert roundtables to share expertise and reflections from our work on peace negotiations, post-conflict constitution drafting, and war crimes prosecution.
Speakers
Robel Alemu
Robel Alemu is a PhD student studying Medical Science at the University of Toronto in
Toronto, Canada and serves as Director of Communications for the Amhara Association
in North America (AAA). AAA is a grassroots advocacy organization documenting
atrocities against Amharas and advocating on behalf of the disenfranchised Amhara
people in Ethiopia. AAA produces independent human rights reporting employing a
team of human rights experts (lawyers) in Ethiopia. AAA also regularly engages with
various stakeholders in government, international agencies, media, thinktanks and the
public to provide accurate fact-based information regarding current events in Ethiopia.
Carrie Bowker
Carrie Bowker is the Director at eyeWitness to Atrocities. Since being called to the bar in Canada, she has practiced both domestically and internationally for over 15 years, with a specialization in international criminal law. Prior to joining eyeWitness, Carrie advised judges at the International Criminal Court on complex cases involving war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide. Carrie has previously held positions at Deloitte Canada, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, Canada’s Department of Justice in the War Crimes and Crimes against Humanity section, and Toronto law firm WeirFoulds LLP.
Kate Gibson
Kate Gibson is a PILPG Senior Peace Fellow and Senior Legal Advisor. She has been representing accused before the international criminal courts and tribunals since 2005, including as Co-Counsel of Jean-Pierre Bemba and Bosco Ntaganda before the ICC, Co-Counsel of Charles Taylor before the SCSL, and Co-Counsel of Radovan Karadžić before the IRMCT. At the ICTR, she was Lead Counsel of Justin Mugenzi and Co-Counsel of Jean-Baptiste Gatete. Currently, Kate is the Lead Counsel of Paul Rusesabagina, detained in Rwanda, and is part of the legal team of former Kosovo President Hashim Thaçi before the KSC. She also represents a group of Rohingya victims in the Myanmar/Bangladesh pre-trial proceedings before the ICC, and is Lead Counsel of Prosper Mugiraneza, detained Niger, before the IRMCT. Kate is an Associate Tenant of Doughty Street Chambers, holds an LL.M in International Law from Cambridge University.
Kyle Wood
Kyle is an international lawyer and Affiliate Instructor at the University of Washington School of Law in Seattle, USA. His recent work includes writing and research for the United Nations on litigation related to Crimes Against Humanity committed in Iraq, and allegations before the International Court of Justice that Syria violated the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. Kyle has prosecuted and argued more than two dozen trials and appeals involving genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and Grave Breaches of the Geneva Conventions of 1949. Kyle was part of a team of PILPG investigators who interviewed more than 1,000 Rohingya refugees living in camps in Bangladesh, as part of an investigation into allegations that armed forces in Myanmar had committed atrocity crimes against the Rohingya.
MODERATOR
Professor Milena Sterio
Milena Sterio is the Managing Director of PILPG and the Charles R. Emrick Jr. - Calfee Halter & Griswold Professor of Law at Cleveland State University’s Cleveland-Marshall College of Law. She is a leading expert on international law, international criminal law and human rights. Sterio leads PILPG’s Thought Leadership Initiative.
Sterio is one of six permanent editors of the prestigious IntLawGrrls blog, and a frequent contributor to the blog focused on international law, policy and practice. In the spring of 2013, Sterio was selected as a Fulbright Scholar, spending the semester in Baku, Azerbaijan, at Baku State University. While in Baku, she had the opportunity to teach and conduct research on secession issues under international law related to the province of Azerbaijan, Nagorno-Karabakh. Serving as a maritime piracy law expert, she has participated in meetings of the United Nations Contact Group on Piracy off the Coast of Somalia as well as in the work of the United Nations Global Counterterrorism Forum. Sterio has also assisted piracy prosecutions in Mauritius, Kenya and the Seychelles Islands. Sterio is a graduate of Cornell Law School and the University of Paris I, and was an associate in the New York City firm of Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton before joining the ranks of academia full time. She has published seven books and numerous law review articles. Her latest book, “The Syrian Conflict’s Impact on International Law,” (co-authored with Paul Williams and Michael Scharf) was published by Cambridge University Press in 2020.