Applying a Gender Lens to Transitional Justice After Ethiopia’s Tigray War

To accomplish truly transformative justice following the war between the Ethiopian government and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, the Ethiopian government should amend its transitional justice plan to account for the ways in which the conflict exacerbated gender inequalities, disproportionately impacting women and girls, especially through conflict-related sexual violence.

From November 2020 to November 2022, the central government of Ethiopia was engaged in violent conflict with the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), a paramilitary group in the country’s Tigray region, which ended in a peace agreement between the two sides, mediated by the African Union (AU). The conflict included widespread perpetration of conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV) and exacerbated vulnerabilities and harms suffered by women. CRSV was perpetrated by all parties involved in the conflict and usually occurred in conjunction with other violent acts. In January 2023, the Ethiopian government released a document detailing policy options for transitional justice. Transitional justice refers to the process through which a society responds to and attempts to move on from large-scale violations of human rights. This can include mechanisms such as criminal tribunals, truth commissions, and reparations programs, among others. 

The Ethiopian government’s plan is based on the African Union Transitional Justice Policy Framework (AUTJP). The AUTJP recommends that transitional justice initiatives specifically address the needs of groups especially vulnerable during conflict. It acknowledges the disproportionate harms women face during conflict and calls for “due regard to the gender and gendered dimensions of violations and transitional processes.” CRSV and other gender-based violence during conflict are an extension of already existing societal and cultural gender dynamics and inequalities. The AUTJP framework urges that transitional justice plans do more than simply return society to the status-quo and instead pay particular attention to these pre-existing patterns that enabled gender-based violence to occur. However, the Ethiopian plan eliminates all mentions of gender. 

The exclusion of gender considerations from Ethiopia’s transitional justice initiative will impede its ability to achieve the goals of transitional justice: to provide redress to victims and to create opportunities for transforming the conditions that contributed to the conflict. Previous transitional justice programs that have focused on including women and marginalized groups throughout the design and implementation process are generally seen as transformational. This is illustrated by the Colombian transitional justice initiative, which centralized women and other vulnerable groups—including LGBTQ+ people, displaced people, people with disabilities, and youth—and linked the conflict’s causes to historical mechanisms of discrimination. For example, female judges comprise half of the bench in Colombia’s post-conflict war tribunals, and women make up a committee that monitors the implementation of the peace agreement’s gender components. The Colombian approach is widely regarded as an example of a program that successfully addressed survivors’ needs and helped initiate transformative social, political, economic, and cultural change. In contrast, Ethiopia’s exclusion of gender from its transitional justice initiative will likely hinder the ability of women, girls, and male survivors of CRSV to access or benefit from transitional justice programs and neglect to address the structural inequalities that contributed to the disproportionate suffering of women and girls during the conflict, limiting the initiative’s ability to achieve transformational social change. 

To meet the needs of victims of the atrocities committed by all parties during the Tigray War, the Ethiopian government should implement the following gender-sensitive policies. 

First, local civil society organizations, including women’s groups, should be involved in the design and implementation of transitional justice mechanisms to promote local ownership, sustainability of the project, and legitimacy in the eyes of local communities. Without involving local women, transitional justice mechanisms may neglect to take into account the unique harms women suffered during the conflict. Feminist and transitional justice scholars have noted that civil society groups can be critical allies to domestic transitional justice processes to ensure that initiatives like reparations programs do not overlook the unique social and economic barriers faced by women. 

Second, the transitional justice process should ensure protection for participating CRSV survivors. These programs should inform participating survivors about the threats they may face and available safeguards and protective measures. These safeguards could include witness protection programs, anonymous reporting, and safe houses in the case of intimate partner violence. Policymakers should interpret the concept of “protection” as not just physical security but also as protection from further psychological harm. Sharing their experiences can be both painful and empowering for victims, so it is vital to design and implement transitional justice mechanisms that do not cause further harm. Methods for healing trauma should be available to victims who testify in criminal trials, whether this be Western models of therapy or methods rooted in local tradition.

Lastly, transitional justice mechanisms should take into account both the historical and current patterns of gender inequality in Ethiopian society that enabled gender-based violence during the conflict. They should take a gender-sensitive approach that aims to remedy these inequalities, rather than restoring society to the pre-conflict status quo. One such mechanism is a gender-sensitive CRSV reparations program. Given the widespread reports of sexual violence during the conflict, it is critical that the government implements policies that offer redress to these victims. The program should be inclusive of all victims who experienced CRSV during the conflict, regardless of their gender or to which forces the perpetrator belonged. Local women’s groups should be consulted in the design and implementation of these programs to ensure that they adequately address survivors’ needs, reduce stigmatization towards CRSV, and address the underlying gender norms that normalize violence against women. The reparations must consider the historical economic and social injustices caused by gender discrimination in Ethiopia and address both the immediate and long-term needs of survivors.

The Tigray War resulted in mass violations of human rights, including war crimes, crimes against humanity, CRSV, and the displacement of over 5.1 million people. These policy recommendations will help the Ethiopian government more adequately document the human rights violations committed during the conflict and provide justice for victims who may otherwise be neglected if gender is not taken into account.

Authors: Meredith Gusky and Madeleine MacLean

Managing Editor: Alexander Sarchet

Web Editor: Wai Ki Law