Europe External Programme with Africa

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Europe External Programme with Africa
AbbreviationEEPA  OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg
Types international non-governmental organization   OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg
Aim human rights   OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg
Headquarters City of Brussels   OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg
CountryBelgium  OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg
Budget277,000 Euro (2019)  OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg
Revenue277,202 Euro (2019)  OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg
Employees7 (2021)  OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg
Website www.eepa.be   OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg

The Europe External Programme with Africa and Europe External Policy Advisors, both called EEPA, are two closely associated Belgian-based non-governmental organizations [1] that aim to encourage the European Union's involvement in human rights in general (EEPA/Advisors) [2] and, in particular, in the Horn of Africa and North Africa (EEPA/Africa). [3]

Contents

Creation and history

Europe External Policy Advisors (EEPA/Advisors) states that it was created in 2003. It was registered with the European Commission in July 2015 with ID number 719135118053-50, as an international Belgian-based non-governmental organization (AISBL). [2] Europe External Programme with Africa (EEPA/Africa) was registered with the European Commission in January 2018 with ID number 574620429651-88. [3] In 2020, the two organisations shared their street address, website and the EEPA acronym. [2] [3]

Leadership and structure

Mirjam van Reisen, an international relations and human rights professor at Tilburg University, is stated by EEPA/Advisors to have been its founding director in 2003. [4] In 2020, van Reisen continued to be the director of EEPA/Advisors [2] and was the secretary-general of EEPA/Africa. [5]

As of March 2024, EEPA/Africa's president was Julia Duncan-Cassell. [6]

In May 2020, EEPA/Advisors had three part-time employees [7] and in January 2021, EEPA/Africa had seven part-time employees. [2] Neither had persons accredited to access the European Parliament (EP). [7] [2]

Eritrean human rights lawyer Daniel Mekonnen states that he worked for EEPA/Africa during 2016–2018. [8] [9]

Aims

EEPA/Advisors describes its aims as influencing European foreign policy supporting development and human rights. [2] EEPA/Africa describes it aims as using research and distribution of information to promote human rights and justice in Africa, especially in the Horn of Africa and North Africa, and by influencing European Union (EU) actions and policy towards Africa. [3]

Actions

EEPA/Africa published daily situation reports on the Tigray War starting on 17 December 2020. [10] Its 18 December report stated that the Negash mosque had been "first bombed and later looted by Ethiopian and Eritrean troops". [1] [11]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Debre Dammo</span> Monastery in Tigray Region, Ethiopia

Debre Dammo ,The monastery is known as Däbrä Dammo in Tigrinya, and as Däbrä Damo in later Amharic appellations. also spelled Debre Damo, Dabra Dāmmo or Däbrä Dammo), is the name of a flat-topped mountain, or amba, and a 6th-century monastery in Tigray Region of Ethiopia. The mountain is a steeply rising plateau of trapezoidal shape, about 1,000 by 400 m in dimension. It sits at an elevation of 2,216 m (7,270 ft) above sea level. It is north of Bizet and northwest of Adigrat in Central Zone, Tigray, close to the border with Eritrea.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hagere Selam (Degua Tembien)</span> Town in north Ethiopia

Hagere Selam is a town in northern Ethiopia. Located on the Mekelle-Abiy Addi regional road, it is located at an elevation of 2650 metres above sea level. The town is the administrative center of the Dogu'a Tembien woreda. The weekly market is on Saturdays.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Zalambessa (district)</span> Subregion or part in Eritrea or Ethiopia

Zalambessa is a small area on the border between Eritrea and Ethiopia claimed by the two countries that clashed especially on this issue in a war between 1998 and 2000. Eritrea believes that it belongs to its Debub Zone, while Ethiopia believes that it belongs to the Misraqawi Zone of Tigray.

The Transitional Government of Tigray was a caretaker administration that was formally declared by the House of Federation of Ethiopia on 7 November 2020, in the context of a conflict between the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF), in power in the Tigray Regional State and the federal government of Ethiopia. In late November 2020, the administration, headed by Mulu Nega, planned public consultation and participation in choosing new leaders at the regional and zonal level and preservation of woreda and kebele administrations. The Transitional Government left Tigray in late June 2021 during Operation Alula.

The Ethiopian Human Rights Commission (EHRC) is a national human rights institution (NHRI) established by the Ethiopian government. The EHRC is charged with promoting human rights and investigating human rights abuses in Ethiopia. The EHRC states organizational independence as one of its values. In October 2021, the EHRC's rating by the Global Alliance of National Human Rights Institutions for operation in accordance with the UN Paris Principles was upgraded from grade B to grade A.

This timeline of the Tigray War is part of a chronology of the military engagements of the Tigray War, a civil war that began in the Tigray Region of Ethiopia in early November 2020.

Arena Tigray or Arena Tigray For Democracy and Sovereignty is an Ethiopian political party based in the Tigray Region and participating in the Medrek coalition federally.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Axum massacre</span> 2020 massacre in Ethiopia, as part of the Tigray War

The Axum massacre was a massacre of about 100–800 civilians that took place in Axum during the Tigray War. The main part of the massacre occurred on the afternoon and evening of 28 November 2020, continuing on 29 November, with smaller numbers of extrajudicial killings taking place earlier, starting from 19 November and during the weeks following the 28–29 November weekend. The massacre was attributed to the Eritrean Defence Forces (EDF) by Amnesty International, Associated Press, the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission (EHRC), Human Rights Watch (HRW) and Adigrat University lecturer Getu Mak.

The Hitsats massacre was a massacre at Hitsats refugee camp on or around 19 November 2020 during the Tigray War. The civilians killed were 300 Eritrean refugees, according to Europe External Programme with Africa (EEPA), and five humanitarian workers, according to The New York Times, Associated Press, and the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

The spillover of the Tigray War has had an impact on other countries in the surrounding region, particularly in Sudan. This spillover mainly consisted of Ethiopian refugees, more than 50,000 of which have crossed the Ethiopia–Sudan border. There have also been border clashes, mostly between the Sudanese Armed Forces and Ethiopian militias, but the Sudanese government has also claimed ambushes by the Ethiopian National Defense Force have taken place. Most of the fighting centered in Al-Fashaqa, a fertile plain claimed by both Sudan and Ethiopia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hagere Selam massacres</span> Massacre in Hagere Selam, Southwestern Tigray as part of Tigray war

The Hagere Selam massacres were mass extrajudicial killings that took place in Hagere Selam in the Tigray Region of Ethiopia during the Tigray War, on 4 and 5 December 2020.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Adigrat massacres</span> Civilian killings in Ethiopia during the Tigray War

The Adigrat massacres were mass extrajudicial killings by the Eritrean Defence Forces (EDF) that took place in and near Adigrat in the Tigray Region of Ethiopia during late 2020 during the Tigray War. These included 86 civilians killed in Zalambessa around 13 November 2020, 8–15 in Hawzen on 25 November, 80–150 at the Maryam Dengelat church near Idaga Hamus on 30 November.(more than thousand Tigreans massacred by Eritrean troops in Axum on 27 Nov 2020)

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sexual violence in the Tigray War</span>

Sexual violence in the Tigray War included, according to the United Nations Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict, Pramila Patten, people forced to rape family members, "sex in exchange for basic commodities", and "increases in the demand for emergency contraception and testing for sexually transmitted infections".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Casualties of the Tigray War</span> Breakdown of Tigray War casualties

Casualties of the Tigray War refers to the civilian and military deaths and injuries in the Tigray War that started in November 2020, in which rape and other sexual violence are also widespread. Precise casualty figures are uncertain. According to researchers at Ghent University in Belgium, as many as 600,000 people had died as a result of war-related violence and famine by late 2022. The scale of the death and destruction led The New York Times to describe it in November 2022 as "one of the world’s bloodiest contemporary conflicts."

The refoulement of Eritrean refugees consists of the forceful return of Eritrean refugees from Ethiopia back to Eritrea, while international law requires non-refoulement. The New York Times, Europe External Programme with Africa and Human Rights Concern Eritrea claimed that Eritrean refugees were forcefully returned to Eritrea during the Tigray War that started in late November 2020 from the Hitsats and Shimelba refugee camps. On 2 February 2021, there were 20,000 unaccounted for Eritrean refugees according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees following a visit to Ethiopia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">War crimes in the Tigray War</span>

All sides of the Tigray War have been repeatedly accused of committing war crimes since it began in November 2020. In particular, the Ethiopian federal government, the State of Eritrea, the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) and Amhara regional forces have been the subject of numerous reports of both war crimes and crimes against humanity.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Salsay Weyane Tigray</span> Tigrayan nationalist political party in Ethiopia

Salsay Weyane Tigray is a political party in the Tigray Region of Ethiopia.

The Dengelat massacre was a mass extrajudicial killing that took place in Dengelat in the Tigray Region of Ethiopia during the Tigray War, on 30 November 2020. Dengelat is a village that belongs to tabiya Beleso, woreda Sa’isi’e, Eastern zone of Tigray.

This Timeline of the Tigray War is part of a chronology of the military engagements of the Tigray War, a civil war that began in the Tigray Region of Ethiopia in early November 2020.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wukro massacres</span> 2020–2021 massacres in the Tigray War

During the Tigray War, the town of Wukro was damaged heavily, and was the scene of numerous killings and massacres committed by the Ethiopian National Defense Force (ENDF) and Eritrean Defence Forces (EDF). It was bombed in mid-November 2020, then shelled by artillery fire a few weeks later, resulting in heavy destruction of property and multiple civilian deaths. There was looting of public and private property, leaving shops empty and the local hospital destroyed. Occupying soldiers engaged in sexual violence, extrajudicial killings, and detention of civilians through at least March 2021. These massacres in Wukro received international attention in media articles.

References

  1. 1 2 "Tigray crisis: Ethiopia to repair al-Nejashi mosque". BBC News . 2021-01-05. Archived from the original on 2021-01-05. Retrieved 2021-01-05.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "Transparency Register – Profile of registrant – Europe External Policy Advisors". European Commission . 2020-05-04. Archived from the original on 2021-01-14. Retrieved 2021-01-14.
  3. 1 2 3 4 "Transparency Register – Profile of registrant – Europe External Programme with Africa". European Commission . 2020-01-07. Archived from the original on 2021-01-05. Retrieved 2021-01-05.
  4. "Europe External Policy Advisors". Europe External Programme with Africa. 2018-05-04. Archived from the original on 2018-05-04. Retrieved 2021-01-14.
  5. van Reisen, Mirjam (2020). "Mirjam van Reisen". Tilburg University . Archived from the original on 2021-01-05. Retrieved 2021-01-05.
  6. Mwanga, Caroline (2024-03-13). "UN Commission Asked To Focus On 'Horrific Violence' Against Women In Tigray War – OpEd". Eurasia Review. Retrieved 2024-04-23.
  7. 1 2 "Transparency Register – Profile of registrant – Europe External Programme with Africa". European Commission . 2020-01-11. Archived from the original on 2021-01-14. Retrieved 2021-01-14.
  8. Mekonnen, Daniel (2020). "Daniel Mekonnen". Archived from the original on 2020-10-23. Retrieved 2021-01-05.
  9. Mekonnen, Daniel (2019-03-13). "Statement Delivered at the 40th Session of the UN Human Rights Council". Eritrean Law Society . Archived from the original on 2021-01-05. Retrieved 2021-01-05.
  10. "Situation reports". Europe External Programme with Africa. 2021-01-05. Archived from the original on 2021-01-05. Retrieved 2021-01-05.
  11. "Situation Report EEPA HORN No. 29 – 18 December" (PDF). Europe External Programme with Africa. 2020-12-18. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2021-01-05. Retrieved 2021-01-05.