Chief Commissioner Prof. Mesfin Araya speaks at the National Dialogue Commission's closing press briefing, in a video posted October 23, 2026. Photo: Sputnik Ethiopia via X
Ethiopia's National Dialogue Commission reached the end of its legal term on Saturday, October 24, without publishing the 394 recommendations that came out of its national consultation.
The commission was created by a proclamation at the start of 2022 with a three-year mandate to lead the country through a dialogue on the disputes behind its long cycle of conflict. When it failed to finish on time, the House of Peoples' Representatives extended its life by one year in February 2025 and then by eight more months, for a total of four years and eight months. On October 3 it handed the recommendations of a national conference of about 4,000 participants to parliament, and passed the agenda items that concern individual regions to the regional governments. Parliament has already honored the commissioners and sent them off.
The law that set up the commission gives it the duty of making those recommendations public, BBC Amharic noted, and the commissioners leave without having done so. Chief Commissioner Prof. Mesfin Araya told the BBC that the commission had finished almost everything else, and that it held back the document because it had no time left to answer the questions the public would raise. "Since the House of Peoples' Representatives has fully taken on the responsibility of presenting the recommendations to the public, it will present them step by step," he said. "If we present the recommendations today and are gone the next day, the one who can answer is the House of Peoples' Representatives."
He said parliament had assured him it would release the recommendations in stages, but neither he nor parliament has given a date. Wazema Radio reported that Mesfin told journalists this week that parliament will publish them "as necessary," and that from Sunday any comment by a commissioner on the dialogue will not represent the commission.
The plan to follow how the recommendations are carried out has also fallen away. The proclamation asked the commission to build a system to monitor implementation, and Mesfin said it had met that duty by sending parliament a proposed strategy, but that the follow-up itself cannot happen because the commissioners' term was not extended. He hopes to keep advising in the roughly three months in which former commissioners keep their benefits. "Even though it is not my obligation, as chief commissioner I want to see some of the work implemented," he said.
What happens to the office is not entirely clear. In the BBC interview, he said that only secretariat staff will stay on, for about three months, to finish audits and store the record of the process in digital form, and Sheger FM reported that the office will keep working for a few months. Sources close to the commission told Wazema the office could stay open for about a year to complete its documentation.
A few of the recommendations, including those on the status of Addis Ababa, came out of the conference with deep disagreement, and some participants warned that the dialogue could become a new source of conflict. Mesfin said the conference produced "recommendations, not decisions," which will "go through many processes" before experts decide which options best serve Ethiopia's unity.
At the closing briefing, Sputnik Ethiopia quoted Mesfin as saying the dialogue had "laid a foundation" for a new political order between government and people.
Opposition parties and some participants accused certain commissioners of trying to shape the agenda and of favoring the ruling party. Asked about this by the BBC, the chief commissioner said he could not confirm any such conduct, his own included. "I kept my neutrality as much as possible and was working on nation building," he said. Some critics have argued that a political negotiation, more than these recommendations, is what the country needs, BBC Amharic noted.
Mesfin listed his own regrets: Tigray's delegates did not come through the same grassroots process as other regions, the armed groups still fighting did not take part, and some influential parties stayed out despite many attempts to bring them in. The commission closes while federal forces are at war with Fano in the Amhara region and with Tigrayan forces in the north.
"We are tired of conflict and war. What will serve the next generation is solving problems and differences around the table, through discussion and negotiation," Mesfin said in the BBC interview.