Let us stand for Democracy: Give Back our Demonstration Rights!

 

Press Release for Third Online Campaign

Zone9 is an online activist and blogger group which is a collection of Ethiopians that envision creating all-inclusive and independent narration in Ethiopia’s politics and social matters. Its main objective is to create a platform were concerned Ethiopians are cultivated to make each and every one participate in the various facets of the country, discuss and contribute to the betterment of Ethiopia.
Respected residents of Zone 9, in the year 2012/13 we have planned to conduct four different campaigns on different issues. We are going to conduct our third campaign from May 8^th to 10^th of 2013. This campaign will focus on demanding Article 30 of FDRE’s constitution, which entails that everyone has the right to assemble and demonstrate together with others peaceably and unarmed, and to petition, to be respected.
Peaceful demonstration and assemblies are rights granted by the constitution to enable citizens to associate and express their common views of their choices.
During and after the 2005 national election, any form of public demonstration and assembly was banned by state of emergency from the prime minister on the evening of the election. The two major historical demonstrations of May 7 and 8 were parts of the election campaign and it is possible to conclude that few demonstrations held there-after were to support government and solely one sided.
After May 2005 the one and the only opposition demonstration was held by Unity for Democracy and Justice (UDJ) party with only 250 participants demanding the release of the then Party chair W/t Birtukan Midekssa. UDJ leaders were asked to take responsibilities for any security problems which forced them to limit the number of participants.
Currently, even though, there isn’t any legal barrier, assemblies, political campaigns and demonstrations are restricted and limited. Private owners of meeting halls and conference rooms are often hesitant and prefer to refrain from renting their properties in fear of unfavorable repercussion that might follow, from the government.
This third campaign requests immediate action on bans and indirect restriction on rights to unarmed peaceful demonstration and assemblies and protection of this right enshrined in the constitution by the government.
The campaign will mainly be held on Facebook and Twitter. Articles and blogs focusing on the constitutional right and related topics will be posted and shared. The Hashtags that will be used for the campaign are #Assembly4Every1 and #Demonstration4Every1.
We would like to invite residents of Zone9 and all others, who believe in the right to demonstrate and assemble: to participate and share your experience in regards to the abuse of these rights and discuss your thoughts, change your profile picture and status updates with the ones that are going to be shared on the two main pages – Zone9 and Respect the Constitution (??-????? ????!). Thank you!!!
We blog because we care!!!
Zone9