Mr. Obang Metho, former Director of International Advocacy for the Anuak Justice Council, serves as executive director of the SMNE. The SMNE Steering Committee provides strategic leadership and direction. The Committee is made up of seven Ethiopians who are representative of the regional, ethnic, religious and gender makeup of Ethiopian society. Most of these individuals have backgrounds in human rights advocacy and organizational management and development. They are located in Canada, the United States, Europe and Africa. They bring with them a broad range of professional experience and skills. The steering committee, advisors and close supporters of the SMNE hold degrees in a wide variety of disciplines including law, political science, philosophy, theology, library science, computer science, medicine, university level education, biology, economics, nursing, public administration, engineering and journalism.
The SMNE leadership is fortunate to also be able to call upon an advisory board made up of well-respected and well-known experts. These people include a former Canadian Member of the Parliament, a former US State Department legal advisor, a prominent civil rights leader, a number of distinguished academics with significant involvement in matters of international law and policy and experts in such areas as international law, international human rights, transitional justice and a former diplomat involved in foreign embassy work.
Broad-based support for the SMNE comes from many Ethiopian and non-Ethiopian individuals and groups within Ethiopia and throughout the world who have joined together around the SMNE’s core principles: “humanity before ethnicity” and “no one is free until all are free.” They stand together in protest of human rights abuses, lack of democratic process, restricted freedoms of expression, failure of the rule of law, oppressive policies and rampant injustices of the current government of Ethiopia.
We are working in collaboration with international policy makers, human rights organizations, civic organizations and members of the faith community to advance our goals. We welcome participation from other international, national, regional or local organizations.