11. The Complainant claims that the Ethiopian government's response to the December massacre has
been grossly inadequate and disingenuous. The Complainant states that the government's initial position
that no soldiers had taken part in the massacre had become impossible to defend and adds that the
Commission of Inquiry set up by the Government was biased and ineffectual and did not investigate the
behaviour of the Ethiopian Defence Forces as an organisation despite numerous reports.
Complaint
12. The Complainant states that crimes against humanity, such as extrajudicial killing, torture, and rape,
crimes that take place against the Anuak civilians is in violation of international law as well as a violation of
Articles 4, 5, 6, 12,14 and 18 of the African Charter. The Anuak Justice Council urges the African
Commission to intervene to prevent further human rights abuses of the Anuak by the Ethiopian
government.
13. The Comp[lainant] further makes an urgent request for provisional measures under Rule 111 of the
Rules of Procedure of the African Charter [sic] that the African Commission may intervene to "avoid
irreparable damage being caused to the victim of the alleged violation".
Request for provisional measures - summary
14. The Complainant, requests for provisional measures to the African Commission pursuant to Rule 111 of
the Rules of Procedures of the Commission. The complaint relates to the alleged actions of the Defence
Forces of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia. These actions according to the Complainant reveal
a pattern of serious and massive human and peoples' rights violations by the Ethiopian Defence Forces.
That, bound by the African Charter, the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, has and continues to
violate Articles 4, 5, 6, 12, 14 and 18 of the African Charter.
15. The Anuak Justice Council therefore seeks the [African] Commission's intervention and issuance of
Provisional Measures requesting that the Ethiopian government stops the human rights abuses of the
Anuak pending a decision of the African Commission on the concurrent communication and is also seeking
an in-depth study of the treatment of the Anuak by the African Commission pursuant to Article 58 of the
Charter.
16. The Anuak Justice Council notes that it does not request the [African] Commission to evaluate the
merits of this case rather, in this provisional measures submission, the Anuak Justice Council merely asks
that the [African] Commission request that the Ethiopian government immediately stops the series of
serious and massive violations of human and peoples' rights of the Anuak people prior to the issuance of a
decision by the African Commission on the merits.
17. That the [African] Commission has jurisdiction to issue provisional measures under Rule 111 of the
Rules of Procedure of the African Charter [sic], see Registered Trustees of the Constitutional Rights Project
v. the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and Five Others[sic]. Similar to the Nigeria case, many
Anuak have also been, and continue to be, sentenced to death. The [African] Commission should therefore
find the Anuak situation as even more sever[e] and compelling than the Nigeria case and grant provisional
measures.
18. The Complainant notes further that while the African Commission has not decided whether grants of
provisional measures should be binding on State Parties, other international and regional human rights
bodies have declared that provisional measures be binding on States including the European Court of
Human Rights, Inter-American Commission, the International Court of Justice and the UN Human Rights
Committee. Due to the severity of the situation that the Anuak find themselves subject to in the Gambella,
in prisons throughout Ethiopia and as refugees in Sudan and Kenya, petitioners plead that the African
Commission grant provisional measures and declare them binding on the Ethiopian government.
19. The Complainant seeks the [African] Commission's intervention and issuance of provisional measures
requesting that the Ethiopian government stop human rights abuses of the Anuak, pending the decision of
this Commission on the Anuak Justice Council's concurrent communication to the African Commission on
the merits of this claim and further urges the Commission to find that its order of provisional measures in
this case be binding upon the Ethiopian government.
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