RIGHTS DEPLUMED: Mapping the Human Rights Impact of Internet Shutdowns in Ethiopia (Research Report)

Executive Summary

By Yohannes Eneyew Ayalew (Ph.D. Candidate, Faculty of Law, Monash University (Australia))

May 2021

Internet shutdown is a growing challenge in Ethiopia. Since 2016, the internet shutdown has been imposed more than ten times in major events happening in Ethiopia, in the wake of high-profile assassinations in Bahir Dar and Addis Ababa, and during the armed conflict in Tigray. Despite repeated pushback from civil society, and digital rights activists, the issue of the internet shutdown did not get the attention it deserves, as well as the level of reprehension toward shutdowns, remains a tangential agenda in socio-political discussions in Ethiopia.

The research report found that the Ethiopian government has been using different narratives which now include a proposed law to justify internet disruptions. To effectively tackle the problem, this report emphasized that the human rights-based approach is an appropriate normative frame to grill the actions of the government because it situates the issue of internet shutdowns in the broader debates of international human rights law. The report notes that the government must align its actions with the three pillars of the human rights-based approach: substantive, process, and procedural dimensions. Specifically, the Ethiopian government must align its shutdown measures with substantive standards of international human rights law, i.e., legality, legitimacy, necessity, and proportionality. While the process dimension entails transparency and oversight requirements, the procedural dimension involves the government following due processes before imposing shutdowns, and remedial measures after shutdowns.

The report highlights the human rights impact of internet shutdowns in Ethiopia. It pinpoints various approaches human rights defenders and policymakers can use to frame and respond to the impacts of internet shutdowns in Ethiopia. Internet shutdown impacts a number of human rights, which are grouped into three generations of rights: first generation rights (civil and political rights), second generation rights (socio-economic rights), and third generation rights (solidarity rights). The report found that the internet shutdown is an affront to democracy, and digitalization, as well as deplumes the normative values of constitutionally protected human rights and freedoms. The report also found that the internet shutdown tarnishes the integrity of elections, and debilitates human rights in the digital age. The report concludes by offering some recommendations for human rights defenders, civil societies, and policymakers to keep the internet on in Ethiopia.

Read the full report below or click here to download it.