Some Western Nations Care Less about Human Rights, Democracy than Their Interests: Scholar

July 29,2021 (ENA)  Some countries in the West and the US care less about human rights and democracy in other parts of the world as long as their political and economic interests are kept, a political scientist said.

Addis Ababa University Political Science and Intranational Relations lecturer, Dr. Demeke Achiso told ENA that though the Western countries pretend to be advocates of democracy and human rights they have not done much to defend human rights of people in other countries.

Instead, the countries use human rights and democracy as shields to attack and pressurize countries to ensure their political and economic interests, he argued.  

Paradoxically the self appointed guardians of democracy and human rights work with countries  repeatedly criticized for human right abuses and corruption.   

“International diplomacy dictates that nations promote relations based on their interests,” the scholar said, adding that the US, however, would ignore human rights abuses and political crisis unless it has interest in the affairs of that specific region.”  

Therefore, Dr. Demeke noted that the US does not care for the suffering of others, including death and displacement in any part of the world as long as its national interests are fulfilled.

According to him, the Government of Ethiopia gives utmost priority to its national interests just like the rest of the world. “It doesn’t work for the interest of other countries in the West against its national interest,” he stressed.    

Ethiopia has been working peacefully with regional and international powers based on its foreign relations policy, the scholar pointed out.

And the successful completion of the second round filling of GERD signals the fact that Ethiopia is on the right track to properly protect its national interest.

Unfortunately, some countries that have been threatened with Ethiopia’s ongoing development endeavors are working to pressurize the government with a view to diverting its attention, Dr. Demeke noted, and urged the countries to accept that Ethiopia is a sovereign nation.