Ethiopia’s parliament, the House of Peoples’ Representatives, on Tuesday, 2 July 2019, appointed Daniel Bekele, a lawyer and former Africa director at Human Rights Watch, as head of the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission, Tadias Magazine reported. He had most recently been a senior adviser at Amnesty International, and he replaced the outgoing commissioner, Addisu Gebregziabher.
Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed congratulated him on Twitter, calling him a “seasoned human rights advocate & lawyer.” The prime minister’s office wrote that “independent, credible & strong democratic institutions play a vital role in ensuring multiparty democracy & respect for human rights.”
Before his work with international rights groups, Daniel practiced law in Ethiopia as a partner at Abebe Worke & Associates, according to his Human Rights Watch biography. He served as legal director and board secretary of United Insurance and ran the policy research and advocacy departments of ActionAid Ethiopia. He consulted for groups including Oxfam, ARTICLE 19, Freedom House and PACT, as well as the U.S. aid agency and the World Bank, and led Ethiopia’s national campaign for the Global Call to Action against Poverty.
During the 2005 elections he worked on human rights, independent election monitoring and peace efforts after the post-election crisis. He was arrested and spent more than two years in prison, and was recognized internationally as a prisoner of conscience. He received the Alison Des Forges Award for Extraordinary Activism in 2009 and was nominated in 2010 for the Martin Ennals Human Rights Defenders Award and the Index Freedom of Expression Award. He holds law and regional development degrees from Addis Ababa University and a master’s in legal studies from Oxford University, where he was completing a doctorate in international law.
Sources: Tadias Magazine