EI has launched an Urgent Appeal today appealing for support from all member and partner organisations to lobby the Ethiopian authorities to allow the members of the ex-Ethiopian Teachers' Association (ETA) to register a new independent teacher organisation.
After a long legal battle which lasted more than 10 years, EI member organisation, the Ethiopian Teachers' Association finally lost its name, assets and property in June 2008 to a younger organisation of the same name supported by the authorities.
But the ex-ETA is not going to give up its goal of being an independent teacher organisation fighting for the rights of Ethiopian education workers. Up until the end of the court case, the ETA was a functioning teacher organisation with 120 000 members.
Even losing the court case, these members remain committed to defending the freedom of association and trade union rights in Ethiopia, a country where Education For All is still a challenge.
However, efforts made so far to register the organisation under the new name of "National Teachers’ Association" (NTA) have been thwarted by all possible legal means by the authorities.
On behalf of the members and supporters of the still-unregistered NTA in Ethiopia, EI strongly urges you and your organisation to support their right under the Ethiopian constitution and Convention 87 of the International Labour Organisation, ratified by Ethiopia in 1963, to be registered without delay by the Ethiopian authorities.
For almost one year now, teachers in the public education system have been deprived of an independent organisation that could defend their rights.
For more information, please click here to read our Urgent Action Appeal.