19 November 2025
Youth have been key actors in Ethiopia’s socio-economic and political transformations. Despite their immense contributions to the country’s development, they have long faced marginalisation, exclusion, and recurrent human rights violations. Past efforts to address gross human rights violations were not comprehensive and paid little attention to victims’ needs, including youth.
The adoption of Ethiopia’s Transitional Justice Policy (TJPE) in 2024 presents a renewed opportunity to address historical injustices, promote victim-centred approaches, as well as achieve restorative and transformative justice. This policy brief examines Ethiopia’s past and ongoing transitional justice (TJ) efforts from a reparations perspective and through a youth lens.
Reparations indifferent to youth needs are neither comprehensive nor inclusive.
Youth-sensitive reparations are not just moral imperatives but legal obligations; not charity, but justice.
The brief, by Girma Gadisa Tufa, calls for youth-sensitive reparations within Ethiopia’s TJ process, reparations that go beyond redressing past harms to transform youth lives, promote inclusion, and build a foundation for lasting peace and social cohesion. The TJPE does not explicitly list youth among vulnerable groups. Its implementation should correct this gap through deliberate inclusion and consultation. Ensuring meaningful youth inclusion in Ethiopia’s TJ process is thus both a legal obligation and a strategic investment in the country’s democratic and developmental future. The brief concludes with clear recommendations for the government, civil society, and for youth to inspire direct action.
This brief is the fourth in a five-part youth-led series exploring the linkages between historical injustices, their enduring impacts in different African contexts, and the insufficiency of efforts to address these atrocities.
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