A coalition of more than 30 human rights organisations has urged the United Nations Human Rights Council to convene a special session on Ethiopia, warning that renewed fighting raises the risk of further atrocity crimes.
In an open letter dated 8 October, the groups, among them Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, DefendDefenders and the Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect, asked the Council to act before its next regular session in February–March 2027.
They said large-scale hostilities resumed on 22 September between federal forces and the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) and spread into Afar and Amhara, while conflict continued in Amhara and Oromia. The letter said the November 2022 Cessation of Hostilities Agreement had "effectively collapsed".
The organisations proposed that the Council's president appoint a three-member advisory panel of independent experts drawn from existing UN special procedures and African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights mechanisms. The panel would assess alleged violations by all parties since August 2026, prepare a summary report for an inter-sessional briefing before 31 January 2027, and recommend further Council steps.
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They also called for an enhanced interactive dialogue at the Council's 64th regular session and urged the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to resume public reporting on Ethiopia.
The letter said the previous war was marked by massacres, conflict-related sexual violence, attacks on health care and forced displacement, and that the end of the International Commission of Human Rights Experts on Ethiopia left a gap in international scrutiny. It attributed those characterisations to the signatories' own findings and earlier reporting.
APA News and Human Rights Watch both carried the appeal on 9 October. UN Secretary-General António Guterres has separately voiced grave concern over the northern fighting and called for restraint.
