December 17, 2021
Thank you, Madame Vice President,
Let me put on record, at the outset, that the outrageous quote by the Coordinator of Special Procedures is unfair, baseless, and based on a dubious source. It is neither in the culture of our disciplined defense forces nor in our policy to “cleanse” Tigrayans from their country.
Madame Vice president,
The convening of this Special Session is regrettably part and parcel of the ongoing abuse of the principles of human rights and the working methods of the Council. In less than six months, the Council was called several times to discuss the human rights situation in the Tigray region of Ethiopia; including through briefings and interim briefings of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.
Sadly, the deliberations aim at deflecting the attention of the Council from the real human rights violations that has happened in Ethiopia. The attempts all focus on one region,n while excluding the rest of Ethiopia in terms of coverage;