Mahlet Abreham Tibetu
Mahlet Abreham Tibetu is a woman human rights defender and Programme Executive for the Horn of Africa Peace Project at the AACC Liaison Office to the African Union. Formerly, she was programme director at the Ethiopian Human Rights Defenders Center and a women's rights activist. She has extensive research and publication experience investigating issues related to women's rights, such as the protection of internally displaced women, women's political participation and conflict-related sexual violence. As a coordinator of the Ethiopian women's human rights network, Mahlet Abreham Tibetu has been engaged in advocating for peace and negotiation, as women are the people who are disproportionately impacted by the conflict.
In Ethiopia, human rights defenders (HRDs) work in extremely difficult conditions marked by threats, acts of intimidation, restrictions on freedom of expression, association and assembly, judicial harassment, and arbitrary arrests. Repressive legislation passed in recent years has been successful in silencing civil society. Severe restrictions on external funding continue to undermine the work and effectiveness of non-governmental organisations (NGOs). Several human rights defenders and journalists were forced to flee the country and those who remained practised self-censorship for fear of attack or harassment.
