TARIKAWIT FIKADU “Being the Voice Amid Ethiopia’s incredibly complex human rights terrain”

Tarikawit Fikadu is the Program Director at Ethiopian Human Rights Defender Centre (EHRDC), an organisation that offers protection, advocacy and capacity building services to human rights defenders (HRDs). EHRDC was established in 2019, following the Claiming Spaces forum, which is DefendDefenders’ annual capacity-building workshop for HRDs in the East and Horn of Africa sub-region.

“By the time I joined EHRDC in 2022, the organisation had already made a lot of progress, with support from DefendDefenders as one of the key partners. We were carrying out the ‘Encouraging Civility’ project and this was the first time I heard about DefendDefenders. My supervisor had been managing the project, but after she left, I took over and started working more closely with DefendDefenders. This experience helped me a lot because the term ‘human rights defender’ was new to me when I joined EHRDC. But over the past three years, with support of DefendDefenders, I received a lot of trainings regarding human rights defenders, protection, and advocacy, so it impacted me, I can now do the job, I can be strong, and I can be a voice for HRDs in general, but especially for Ethiopian HRDs. It gave me strength and a focus on how to do the job and how to navigate Ethiopia’s incredibly complex human rights terrain, characterised by constant political tension, deep-rooted conflicts and systemic human rights violations.

“As a young woman, I feel that I have been given a huge opportunity to engage with international platforms, doing advocacy work. My first big break was joining the DefendDefenders team at the 51st session of the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva. I was able to get a better understanding of how advocacy works on the global stage. I saw the reality of how HRDs engage with international bodies like the UN, expressing their challenges and influencing decision-making at the international level. Our mission to Geneva was to ask for the extension of the International Commission of Human Rights Experts on Ethiopia. We had a lot of meetings with the state representatives. The mandate was extended for one year, so we were successful in that mission.”  

“Then I also traveled to Banjul with DefendDefenders, and engaged with the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights (ACHPR). This experience gave me a new perspective on working with the African mechanisms, that we can engage and exhaust the existing African systems before proceeding to international platforms. There was also a lot networking and from hearing about the experiences of other HRDs from other countries, I now appreciate the similarity in the challenges faced by HRDs across the continent, and how we can overcome these challenges through collective action and solidarity. By speaking with one voice, and repeating it over and over again, we can ensure that our messages are heard loud and clear.”

“I hope to see DefendDefenders expanding across the entire continent and becoming the major partner for human rights advocacy across Africa. DefendDefenders can bring all of us together, so that we have one voice and work as one.”

“Happy Anniversary, DefendDefenders!”

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“Many of my colleagues also went through similar experiences, where DefendDefenders was able also to strategise their protection. Instead of being kidnapped or even detained, other colleagues were relocated to safer spaces across the continent. Some have been able to continue with their work, all thanks to DefendDefenders’ support, which is so important to the human rights fraternity.”

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