PROFESSOR ASRAT WOLDEYES                                                                                         Nominated by Zeru G.
Prof. Asrat Woldeyes was the first Ethiopian surgeon and the first Dean of the Medical Faculty at Addis Ababa University which he helped found. He worked very hard along with his few Ethiopian colleagues to create the first medical school in the country. This medical school came into being in 1965 and it has been producing hundreds of medical graduates ever since. He was also Emperor Haile Selassie's physician for many years.

Apart from his pioneering achievements as the country's first surgeon, Professor Asrat is widely known for his courageous attempts to bring about a truly democratic political system in Ethiopia in the face of systematic crackdown on the part of the current government. Soon after the current government came about in 1991, Professor Asrat founded a political party as an opposition to the government with the purpose of bringing about unity and to abolish the notion of separatism from the constitution. Professor Asrat taught the Ethiopian people that bringing about political change was possible with unarmed and peaceful political struggle. With the peaceful and courageous struggle of this political party, the campaign for political change started gathering momentum. And the systematic crackdown continued. In order to put down the struggle, the government imprisoned Professor Asrat for five years in maximum security prison in Addis Ababa. He was dubbed ‘a prisoner of conscience' by Amnesty International, which had denounced the accusations against him as ‘baseless'. His health deteriorated significantly during his imprisonment and when it became apparent that he was about to pas away, he was allowed to leave the country. Professor Asrat died at Pennsylvania University Hospital - in the USA - on 10 May 1999 at the age of 71. Much of the political opposition that is gripping Ethiopia today stems from the party Professor Asrat founded more than a decade ago. What he set out to achieve for Ethiopia may not have been realized, but the process of change is well underway. And he may no longer be here, but his legacy will live on forever.

PROFESSOR MESFIN WOLDEMARIAM                                                                            Nominated by Zeru G.
He is one of Ethiopia 's dynamic intellectuals. He taught geography at Addis Ababa University from 1959 to 1985. Professor Mesfin has written several books and monographs, such as ‘An Atlas of Ethiopia', ‘Introductory Geography of Ethiopia', and ‘The Background to the Ethio-Somalian Boundary Dispute'.

Professor Mesfin is the founder of the Ethiopian Human Rights Council – the very first such organization in Ethiopia. Soon after the current government took power 14 years ago, Professor Mesfin took a bold step to embark on the task of setting up Ethiopia's first independent human rights organization with the main purpose of educating Ethiopians about their basic human rights and also exposing any human rights violations in the country. This organization has been exposing countless human rights violations in Ethiopia by the current government. Politically motivated systematic killings and abductions that wouldn't otherwise be heard about have been made public in detail with the help of the organization. Through its connections with other international human rights organizations, it has also been able to bring with evidence the violations of basic rights in Ethiopia to the attention of the international community. Not only has it been exposing violations, it has also been relentlessly asking the government to abide by the principles of the international declaration of human rights. In recent months, human rights violations in Ethiopia have dramatically increased and the person who has been fighting for the basic human rights of Ethiopians – Professor Mesfin W/mariam – has become one of the latest victims of the government. Along with some of Ethiopia 's most precious intellectuals, he has been thrown into jail facing a charge of treason. Whatever happens to him next, the seed he planted will never cease to grow. As a result of his pioneering bold efforts, greater number of Ethiopians have become aware of their basic human rights now than ever before; so as to be able to stand up for themselves. And as a result of his pioneering bold efforts, the rest of the world is under no illusion as to what sort of government Ethiopia is run by today.

DOCTOR TAYE WOLDESEMAYAT                                                                              Nominated by Amsalu Zaerihun
Dr. Taye Woldesemayat is the President of the Ethiopian Teachers’ Association (ETA). The ETA is an independent trade union that was set up in 1951. It is the second largest trade union in Ethiopia and is affiliated to Education International which is the umbrella organization of trade unions representing teachers. Dr. Taye has a Ph.D. in political science from the University of Missouri-Columbia in the United States. In 1989, Dr. Taye took a post as Assistant Professor in Political Science and International Relations at Addis Ababa University. In 1992, the Ethiopian Teachers' Association (ETA) elected Dr. Taye as its President. Along with his newly elected trade-unionists, he set out to protect the interests of teachers throughout Ethiopia. And in 1993, the EPRDF regime in Ethiopia dismissed 42 academics from Addis Ababa University including Dr. Taye and the entire ETA Executive Leadership.

Since 1993, the Ethiopian regime has made attempts to control or frustrate the activities of the ETA, such as freezing its bank account and pension fund, shutting down offices, searching the headquarters illegally, dismissing some ETA members from their teaching positions and imprisoning others. The regime also set up a rival teachers’ organization of the same name. As leader of ETA, Dr Taye spoke critically against the government’s education policy and sought better conditions for teachers. Dr Taye was arrested on 29 May 1996 at Addis Ababa Airport on his return from a visit to Europe. He was unlawfully detained for the subsequent 3 months and in August 1996 he was charged with armed conspiracy.

According to Amnesty International, Dr. Taye endured solitary confinement for four months and being shackled in handcuffs 24 hours a day for two years. He received constant death threats and harassment from prison guards. He also spent time in a special exclusion or darkness cell where he was not allowed to mix with other prisoners and the cell was entirely devoid of natural light. In mid-1998 the conditions of Dr Taye’s detention worsened after he made complaints about the prison conditions, death threats and harassment from prison guards and he was held in hand chains.

After 22 months of delays, many adjournments and the withdrawal of some of the charges, Dr. Taye was found guilty on 3 June 1999 of conspiracy to overthrow the state in a trial adjudged unfair and politically motivated by Amnesty International and was sentenced to 15 years imprisonment.

After relentless campaign by the people of Ethiopia, teachers' unions around the world and Amnesty International, Dr. Taye was released on 14 May 2002, having spent six years in EPRDF's notorious jails.  Ethiopia remains a country where social justice and human rights are abused at an alarming rate.  Yet, Dr Taye’s fearless and skillful campaigns to bring about social justice in Ethiopia and to stop violations of human rights are changing things for the better.  And generations of Ethiopians should always remember his courageous contributions. 

DOCTOR BREHANU NEGA                                                                                                   Nominated by Daniel
Dr. Berhanu Nega  is a founding chairman of the Rainbow Ethiopia: Movement for Democracy and Social Justice and a Deputy Chairman of Coalition for Unity and Democracy (CUD) - for whom he served as chief election campaign strategist. Born in Debre Zeyit - Berhanu attended Addis Ababa University where he participated in the student movement against the ruling Derg government in his freshman year. When the government acted against political dissidents in 1977, Berhanu with other radical student activists fled to Mount Asimba in northern Ethiopia. After a division within the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Party, he was detained for openly criticizing killings within EPRP. After a few months, he was released by his captors and crossed into the Sudan where he lived for two years until he was granted political asylum in the United States.

He did his undergraduate degree in economics at the State University of New York and got his PhD in economics from the New School for Social Research, in New York City. During that time, he became one of the organizers of an annual conference on the "Horn of Africa" that debated and analyzed the political, social and economic conditions in the sub-region. For over five years, it served as a forum for intellectual dialogue among political leaders, policy analysts and researchers interested in developments in that part of Africa.

Intending to contribute to the betterment of his homeland, Dr Berhanu returned to Ethiopia in 1994. He became an entrepreneur and founded the Ethiopian Agro-Maize, a fertilizer producing company, and Addis Village Family Home Builders. He has also served as a lecturer at the Addis Ababa University Department of Economics. From 1996 to 2000, he served as president of the Ethiopian Economic Association. He has also served as the head of the Ethiopian Economic Policy Research Institute - a non-profit organization that he helped to establish. He also worked as a consultant for such organizations as the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA). Dr. Berhanu has lectured and published several articles and reviews on Ethiopian socio-political, economic and human right issues. As a result of his participation in a 2001 public forum where human rights and academic freedom issues were discussed, he was arrested and imprisoned.

Dr Berhanu is largely credited with being the man behind the unprecedented political opposition challenge that the world saw in May 2005.  His courageous efforts made Ethiopians close to realizing their dreams of seeing a democratic Ethiopia as his party won a landslide victory in the capital.  On 20 August 2005, Ethiopia’s main opposition party – CUD – electd Dr. Berhanu Nega as Mayor of Addis Ababa.  In other areas of Ethiopia, massive vote rigging and electoral fraud were confirmed to have been committed by the ruling EPRDF party.  Following a massive anti-government rally on 1 November 2005 in the capital – Addis Ababa – Dr. Brehanu was arrested by the EPRDF regime along with other prominent members of the opposition party – CUD.  He is among those who are facing ‘treason’ charges.  The arrest and staggering treason charges attracted wide-spread international condemnations and on 2 May 2006, Amnesty International issued a press release calling on the Ethiopian regime to ‘release immediately and unconditionally several opposition Members of Parliament-elect, human rights defenders and journalists [as] they are ‘prisoners of conscience who have not used or advocated violence.' Amnesty’s report also added that ‘the charges against opposition parties, human rights defenders and journalists are ‘absurd' and they ‘should be free to carry out their legitimate activities without fear of arbitrary detention, lengthy and possibly unfair trials on political charges, or other human rights violations’.