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Dr Mehari Taddele Maru

A specialist in human rights and humanitarian law, Dr. iur. Mehari Taddele Maru is an international consultant on African Union affairs, and an expert in Public Administration, Policy and Management. His clients include the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), the African Union Commission (AU), the West Africa Network for Peace-building (WANEP), the Global Partnership for the Prevention of Armed Conflict (GPPAC), Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) and Life and Peace Institute (L&PI).

He also lectures at NATO Defense College (Italy), United Nations Institute for Economic Development and Planning (Senegal), the National Defense University (USA), African Center for Strategic Studies (USA). He has made presentations at Peace and Security Council and Permanent Representatives Committee of the AU, ministerial commissions, and the UN Human Rights Council Intergovernmental Working Groups.

A former fellow of very prestigious programmes (such as George Mason, Max Planck, Shell, Partnership for Peace) at Harvard and Oxford Universities, Max Planck Institute and NATO Defense College, he holds a Doctorate of Legal Sciences (DSL) from JL Giessen University, Germany, an MPA from Harvard and an MSc from the University of Oxford, as well as an LLB from Addis Ababa University.

Born in 1974 in the northern region of Tigray, the principal site of, a protracted, devastating civil war in Ethiopia, at an early age, he witnessed and experienced, at an early age, the human rights violations and forced disappearance of his close family members and the negative impact of the devastating war on the livelihood of the local population. His father, Gra-Zmach Taddele Maru, his maternal grandparents Fitewrari Bitsue Welde-Georgis and Wezero Bafena Atsibiha, as well as his uncle Kegna-azmzch Kiros Maru, all of whom were public servants in the Emperor Hailsellassie’s government, and close kinship links to Emperor Yohannes IV were made to forcefully disappear by the then rebel group, a member of the current governing political force in Ethiopia, the Tigray Peoples Liberation Front (TPLF). He was about five years old at this time of trauma, persecution and forced disappearance of so many of his closest family members. Seeking protection and assistance, Mehari was then forced to flee from his birthplace in northern Ethiopia.

Borne out of growing up with a history of grave victimization of his family, Dr Mehari’s personal and professional life was formed around this tragic history of his family and the Ethiopian state of affairs. With this background influencing his childhood, he struggled to formulate a personal philosophy of life through: commitment to the establishment of human rights-protective governance and eradication of poverty based on the maxim of Mahatma Gandhi: ‘an eye for an eye makes us all blind’. He came to the conclusion that a surviving victim has two paths to choose from: a vicious life of a ‘villain-victim’, or a life of ‘hero-victim’. He chose the latter: to make use of his victimization for the greater good, to contribute to a peaceful country and a more peaceful continent. He decided to do what he could to end situations where children will grow up without parents in conditions of conflict and violence. As one of millions of African and Ethiopian children who grew up without a father or, parents and grandparents due to conflicts and human rights violations, Mehari honoured his family’s sacrifices through his efforts to launch national dialogue that may lead to national reconciliation and forgiveness.

His professional career has been shaped by his personal life experiences. His childhood experience, perhaps more than anything else, influenced his subsequent active interest in human rights, peace and human security, public policy and public service, and their consequences.

His commitment to contribute towards efforts to establish the rule of law and human rights protective regimes in Africa was amply reinforced during his initial years at Addis Ababa University. He began his university education in mathematics, but soon decided, against much protest from his professors, to abandon mathematics in favor of law. The motivation for this sudden and radical turn was not narrowly academic in nature. Despite his love for mathematics, he was convinced that his sense of urgency and destiny lay elsewhere; and that he could contribute best by teaching human rights law and advancing respect for human rights in Africa. With this objective in mind, Mehari joined the Faculty of Law at Addis Ababa University.

At the Faculty of Law, he focused on issues of transitional democracies, with particular emphasis on constitutional and human rights law. His senior thesis at the law school explored the rationale for the specific mandates of two central national human rights institutions, namely the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission and the Office of the Ombudsperson.

As a student at Addis Ababa University, Mehari had the privilege of serving as president of the newly resurrected Addis Ababa University Student Union. The challenges confronting the fledgling student organization were daunting. His primarily role, as he saw it then, was to try to infuse a sense of unity, tempered by a healthy respect for an ethnically, religiously and otherwise highly pluralistic student society, and focus on civil non-violent political discourse, human rights advocacy and student welfare.

At the University of Oxford, and with an ultimate aim of understanding the phenomena, and shaping policies related to migration and displacement, he joined a unique programme of Refugee Studies Centre. His master’s dissertation examined the causes, triggers, accelerators and consequences of migration (and displacement) and its impact on human rights, health, and economic livelihood of local populations in Ethiopia in context of federal governance system. In 2004, he graduated with MSc in Forced Migration.

At Harvard University, he studied public policy, management and administration, as well as strategic and economic governance of public institutions. His research focused on institutional building and reform, nation building and peace and security. In 2007, he earned his MA in Public Administration and Certificate in Public Policy and Management.

Prior to joining to Harvard University, he served as Legal Expert at African Union Commission and as Director of the Addis Ababa University Office for University Reform. As Legal Expert at African Union Commission, he focused on human rights issues and working on the merger of the African Union Court of Justice and Human Rights, African Union Commission on International Law (AUCIL), and Committee of African Eminent Jurists that looked to the case of Mr Hissen Habre, former Chadian President.

At Addis Ababa University, he served as the Director for Reform and a member of the Senate, the Policy Committee (highest decision making body) and also chaired and served as the Chief Drafter of the Committee for Senate Legislation, which is now in force. As part of the reform of Addis Ababa University as the premier graduate institution of higher learning in Ethiopia, the preparatory activities and early background research work for the establishment of the Institute of Federal Studies (IFS), the Institute for Peace and Security Studies (IPSS), and the Office of the University Ombudsman were completed under Dr Mehari’s supervision. Despite the violent end of the 2005 elections, in an attempt to enhance the University’s contribution to the public, Dr Mehari initiated and organized the electoral debates sponsored by Addis Ababa University and televised live during the 2005 Ethiopian elections.

Dr Mehari has also served at the AU Commission as Programme Coordinator for Migration. He designed the AU Action Plan for Migration (2008-2012) and implemented the AU.COMMIT Campaign to Combat Trafficking in Human Beings. He also developed the first concept note on the African Institute for Remittances (AIR). These achievements are in addition to numerous other contributions in treaty drafting, norm setting and diffusion activities, partnership management as well as the implementation of AU programmes on migration and development. In 2011-2012, under the chairmanship of Professor Sir John Beddington, Chief Scientific Advisor to the British Government, Dr Mehari was a Member of the High Level Stakeholders Expert Group of the United Kingdom Government that looked at the International implications of Climate Change on migration and displacement.

As Programme Head of the Conflict Prevention and Risk Analysis Programme at the Institute for Security Studies, he developed and delivered several presentations and organized briefings to the AU’s various organs, including the Peace and Security Council (PSC) and Permanent Representatives’ Committee (PRC), that were officially recognized and cited in various decisions of the Assembly of Heads of State and Government. He also devised and supervised the implementation of a strategy that enhanced the visibility, profile and impact of the ISS in the Pan African community in Addis Ababa. He also organized many high-level public seminars and publications, served as a member of the ISS Strategic Planning Team and successfully raised funding for the ISS from a number of traditional and non-traditional donors.

As an International Consultant, Dr Mehari has also facilitated the expert and ministerial conferences of several member states of the AU and IGAD. He has also conducted many institutional and strategic reviews of African Peace and Security institutions, including the African Peace Support Trainers’ Association (APSTA) and the West Africa Network for Peacebuilding (WANEP), and Search for Common Ground. In addition, he served as the African expert for the review of the Africa-EU partnership on Migration, Mobility and Employment as well as higher Education. He also formulated the IGAD Migration Priorities programme for East and Southern Africa and developed the IGAD-Migration Action Plan and re-drafted the IGAD Protocol for the Free Movement of Persons. Moreover, he has facilitated Scenario Building Exercises for regional and national authorities.

Dr Mehari Taddele Maru has long been convinced of the need for civil society to be actively involved in the search for solutions to both local and global problems. To further this goal, he founded and worked with a variety of civil society institutions such as the African Rally for Peace and Development, the Friedrich Ebert Foundation, the Bonn International Centre for Conversion, the African Initiative for a Democratic World Order, and many other similar organisations. Among his many civic engagements, he has served as a member of the Board of Directors of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church Development Commission – Ethiopia’s largest non-governmental relief and development institution.

Dr Mehari has given hundreds of lectures and speeches to international audiences in the North America, Europe, Asia and Africa. A member of the Academic Board of the Journal of Internal Displacement, Dr Mehari has authored several articles and a book, including ‘The Kampala Convention and Its Contributions to International Law’ published by Eleven International - a widely respected academic publisher based in The Hague, Netherlands. With a foreword by Dr Francis Deng, Ambassador and leading scholar in the field and the Former Under-Secretary General Special Adviser of the UN Secretary-General on the Prevention of Genocide, and an introduction by AU former Commissioner of Political Affairs, Mrs Julia Joiner, the book analyses in great depth the provisions of the Kampala Convention in relation to the governance of migration, peace and security and human security in Africa. Many of his articles have been published in reputable international journals such as Africa Insight, the African Security Review, Conflict Trends, Journal of the Nordic Africa Institute, AU Herald, AU Journal, Pambazuka, Al Jazeera Academic Report, Bonn International Center for Conversion Brief, Doha Institute Academic Journal, Journal of Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Diplomatist, Journal of Internal Displacement, Journal of Peace Building and Development, ISPI Policy Brief, ISS Today, Life and Peace Institute New Routes, and NATO Research Papers etc.

Dr Mehari is also a critic and commentator on various regional and international issues. His articles and interviews have appeared in both Ethiopian and international media outlets including Australian Broadcasting Corporation, ABC News, AFP, Al-Jazeera Live TV, AlJazeera Net, BBC, Bloomberg TV, CCTV, CNTV, CNN, Voice of America, Voice of Russia, Deutsche Welle, Xinhua, Financial Times, IPS, Reuters, Pambazuka, the South African Reporter, Radio France International, Sudan Tribune, SABC, The Daily Mavericks, The Economist, Ethiopian Television, The Reporter, TVC, Fortune, Capital, Oman Observer and Walta Information Centre.