Ethiopian Anti-Terrorism Law and Human Rights Nexus: An Appraisal

The advent of counter-terrorism as a major international objective after 9/11 and subsequent proliferation of new anti-terrorism laws by states brought a new challenge to human rights especially civil and political rights. The analyses of certain countries’ Anti-Terrorism Laws especially in developing countries show two major impacts of Anti-Terrorism Law on human rights. The first impact is the post September 11 Anti-Terrorism Laws become broad and give discretionary power to police and security forces which in turn lead to arbitrary violation of the fundamental rights of suspects of terrorist acts. The second and most worrying aspect is some developing countries are using Anti-Terrorism Law as a cover to control political dissent civil society media and individual activists critical of government.