Written by Christaina Leriche

Introduction

Years after the end of the Tigrayan conflict in 2022, rape, abuse, and other forms of violence against women and children in the Tigray region of the Federal Republic of Ethiopia persist.¹See “You Will Never Be Able to Give Birth”: Conflict-Related Sexual and Reproductive Violence in Ethiopia, Physicians for Hum. Rts. (July 31, 2025), https://phr.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/PHR-OJAH-Ethiopia-You-Will-Never-Be-Able-to-Give-Birth-ENG-2025.pdf. This violence is perpetuated with little to no intervention from the Ethiopian government on behalf of the Tigray people.²Id. at 1. Under the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (“CAT”), Ethiopia has failed to fulfill its obligations to take effective measures to prevent such violence from occurring.³See generally Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, Dec. 10, 1984, 1465 U.N.T.S. 85 [hereinafter CAT]; G.A. Res. 39/46 (Dec. 10, 1984). The Tigray Region is subject to various human rights abuses and the perpetuation of sexual violence after the Tigray War from 2020 to 2022, with few measures taken to combat the abuses by the State.⁴Int’l Comm’n of Hum. Rts. Experts on Eth., Comprehensive Investigative Findings and Legal Determinations on Its Fifty-Fourth Session, U.N. Doc. A/HRC/54/CRP.2, at 1 (2023) [hereinafter Comprehensive Investigative Findings]. Ethiopia should adhere to its obligations under international law, specifically the CAT, to prevent, punish, and provide remedies for the human rights violations perpetuated in the Tigray Region.⁵See CAT arts. 2, 6, 12, 14.

Background: The Source of Sexual Violence

Tigray is in the northern region of Ethiopia, bordering the State of Eritrea to the north, and previously home to six million people of majority Tigrayan ethnicity.⁶See Comprehensive Investigative Findings supra note 4, at 19. Political conflict in Ethiopia, spanning from the 1970s to modern day, led to focused resentment on Tigrayans, which was promoted by the government in various statements and government-aligned media.⁷Id. at 14. These inflammatory narratives also maligned other ethnic communities in the region.⁸Id. Key players in the historical conflicts leading up to the violence in the region today include the Ethiopian federal government, the Eritrean government, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (“TPLF”), and various political parties at the forefront of the political conflicts.⁹Id. at 12–13.

With the outbreak of the Coronavirus in 2020, the federal government postponed elections.¹⁰Id. at 14. The TPLF ignored the postponement and moved forward with elections in the Tigray region.¹¹Id. at 15. This led to military action against the TPLF by the Ethiopian federal government and Eritrean forces, including heavy fighting between all parties involved.¹²Id. In 2022, the TPLF and the Ethiopian federal government signed a Cessation of Hostilities Agreement (“CoHA”), including a provision to cease sexual violence.¹³Id. at 15–16. The question remains however, on whether that provision was fulfilled–the answer is no.

Background: The Nature of Violence Committed in the Tigray Region

Since 2022, various organizations, including the International Commission of Human Rights Experts on Ethiopia, have investigated the conflict-related sexual and reproductive violence committed in Tigray during and after the 2020-2022 conflict.¹⁴See Physicians for Hum. Rts. supra note 1, at 2. The investigation confirmed that the sexual violence committed was expressly done to cause grave harm, to erase the Tigrayan ethnicity, and to destroy communities.¹⁵Id. The present day violence resulting from the conflict particularly targets women and girls, with survivors reporting gang rape along with other forms of rape, forcible transmission of STIs, forced pregnancy, insertion of foreign objects into the vagina after sexual assault, sexual violence against children, and sexual violence committed alongside other forms of torture or killings.¹⁶Id. at 3. The perpetrators are Eritrean actors, whose government is not party to CoHA, and there is no intervention from either the Ethiopian or Eritrean government to prevent or stop the sexual atrocities committed.¹⁷Id.

Analysis: Ethiopia’s Legal Responsibility to Its Citizens Under International Law

The CAT, to which Ethiopia is a party to, was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1984 with the purpose of promoting universal human rights and taking an effective stance against torture.¹⁸See CAT art. 2. The CAT puts obligations on member States to take legislative, administrative, and judicial measures to prevent torture, investigate allegations, prosecute perpetrators, and provide remedies to victims.¹⁹Hans Danelius, Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, U.N. Audiovisual Libr. of Int’l L., https://legal.un.org/avl/ha/catcidtp/catcidtp.html (last visited Aug. 3, 2025). The sexual violence occurring in the Tigray region falls under the definition of “torture” in Article 1 of CAT, because the violence qualifies as an act of severe pain and suffering intentionally inflicted on the grounds of discrimination against the Tigray people.²⁰See CAT art. 1.  The Appeals Chamber of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia has deemed that rape fits into the definition of torture under customary international law in the case of The Prosecutor v. Kunarac, Kovac and Vukovic.²¹See Press Release, IRMCT, Sentencing Judgement in the Kunarac, Kovac and Vukovic (Foca) Case (June 12, 2002).  It is undebatable that the various forms of rape and sexual violence committed against the women and girls in the Tigray region amounts to severe pain and suffering.²²See Physicians for Hum. Rts. supra note 14. The perpetrators expressed  their intent to violate their victims based on their ethnic background during the assaults, demonstrating discriminatory intent.²³Id. With that qualification, Ethiopia is obligated to take effective measures such as investigation of abuses, prevention attempts, holding perpetrators accountable, and providing some form of reparations to the survivors under Articles 2, 6, 12, and 14.²⁴See CAT arts. 2, 6, 12, 14.

Conclusion

Ethiopia should be held to its obligations under the CAT to prevent the sexual violence within its borders perpetuated by Eritrean actors.²⁵See id. Furthermore, Ethiopia should cooperate with inquiries and investigations into the human rights crisis within the Tigray region, like the inquiry by the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (“ACHPR”), which was prematurely terminated in 2023.²⁶Concerns Regarding The Premature Termination of the Commission of Inquiry on the Situation in the Tigray Region of the Federal Republic of Ethiopia, Hum. Rts. Watch (Aug. 31, 2023), https://www.hrw.org/news/2023/08/31/concerns-regarding-premature-termination-commission-inquiry-situation-tigray-region. Additionally, per the determinations of the ACHPR, there should be a continuance of international scrutiny and independent investigations into human rights violations in Ethiopia, especially considering the amount of time that has elapsed since the previous investigations in 2023. Lastly, Ethiopia should comply with the ACHPR’s issuance of provisional measures in October 2022 ordering Ethiopia to cease extrajudicial killing, torture, sexual, and gender-based violence.²⁷Press Release: African Commission Hears Landmark Case on Ethiopia’s Abuses in Tigray, Legal Action Worldwide (May 19, 2025), https://legalactionworldwide.org/accountability-rule-of-law/press-release-african-commission-hears-landmark-case-on-ethiopias-abuses-in-tigray-copy/.