The Anuak of Ethiopia Project

Project Description

The Public International Law & Policy Group is providing pro bono legal assistance to the Anuak Justice Council (AJC), a non-profit organization, in its advocacy activities related to the Anuak population of Ethiopia. The Anuak, a minority ethnic group that resides primarily in the Ethiopian Gambella Region, have faced human rights violations at the hands of the Ethiopian Government and its allied militias, and have been ignored in the development of their natural-resource rich homeland.

PILPG assisted the AJC to file a provisional complaint with the International Criminal Court concerning December 2003 atrocities targeting the Anuak in the Gambella Region. PILPG is currently advising the AJC on a number of public international law issues, including the peace agreement negotiation process, indigenous rights, natural resource allocation, the right to vote, refugee return, disarmament, security, political prisoner release, and issues relating to political, economic, and cultural autonomy. PILPG is also assisting the AJC with organizing a conference that will bring together representatives from all ethnic groups in Ethiopia to promote unity and reconciliation.

PILPG has partnered with several law firms, including Milbank Tweed Hadley & McCloy and Baker & McKenzie, to prepare memoranda and conference materials to provide this assistance.

Further information on the Anuak Justice Project is available at www.anuakjustice.org