Ethiopia: Call for a Special Session to Prevent Further Atrocities

What the report says

Human Rights Watch and other civil society groups are urging the UN Human Rights Council to hold a special session on Ethiopia, according to a joint letter released on 8 October 2026 and published by AllAfrica on 9 October 2026. The appeal says the council should respond before its next regular meeting, scheduled for February 2027, because the human rights situation is rapidly worsening amid renewed fighting.

The letter says large-scale hostilities resumed on 22 September 2026 after tensions between Ethiopia’s federal government and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front escalated. It describes fighting and airstrikes spreading across northern Ethiopia, including Tigray, Afar and Amhara, and says civilians have been exposed to drone strikes, artillery fire and attacks on infrastructure. The groups warn that the 2022 cessation-of-hostilities agreement has effectively collapsed.

The organizations ask the council to adopt a resolution that would authorize an advisory panel of three independent experts to quickly assess reported violations, prepare a summary report and recommend next steps. They say such action could help deter abuses, support accountability and prevent a repeat of atrocities linked to the 2020-2022 war.

The letter also points to wider risks, including humanitarian disruption, communication and banking outages, restrictions on civic space and possible regional spillover. In broad context, UN and African regional bodies have often used special sessions to respond to urgent rights crises when rapid international attention is considered necessary.