Interviews with Birtukan Midekssa

I am from Ethiopia. I was brought up in Addis. Actually, I lived in Addis for most of my life when I was back home. I was born in a very small village. It’s, in a way, on the outskirts of Addis. I’m from a very humble family background. Even sometimes people get amazed that I’m involved in politics, coming from that kind of family background. My father, he was a military man. Actually, he was a pensioner when I was born, and my mother was a housewife. And in Ethiopian standard, our family was not that extended.

Even though we faced a lot of challenge in terms of material success and everything, I was able to receive, you know, a good deal of love from my parents, and I lived in that kind of environment. And of course, we had a very good community. It was a very strong societal ties. And, in a way, my neighbors and people living with us were like family members in many ways, so I was from that kind of environment. In my family, even in my community, you know, there were not too many people who succeeded important, professional life. And I didn’t have a chance to look into so many alternatives and options I have.

But as I already tried to tell you, our community was fascinating. Our community life was fascinating for me. And, you know, the way we should treat each other, the way we handle our affairs, our common affairs in a society, was, you know, a subject of fascination, even though it was not that, you know, articulated or so. But so I was interested in law, and actually I had a chance to know that there was a [female] judge in the Supreme Court of the country. She was the only one in the bench when I watched some episode in a public television broadcast, so, you know, I was excited to see her in that kind of position.

Of course, justice was some of – one of the basic ideals, you know, I was fascinated about. I think that is maybe the drive that kind of led me to join the law school at Addis Ababa University.

Birtukan Midekssa is a former federal judge and leader of the pro-democracy opposition movement in Ethiopia.

Hailed as the Aung San Suu Kyi of her country, she was sentenced to life in prison in 2005 after her party, the Coalition for Unity and Democracy, won an unprecedented number of seats in parliamentary elections. After eighteen months in prison, she was pardoned in 2007 following a series of high-level negotiations. Upon her release, she founded the Unity for Democracy and Justice Party (UDJ) and was elected its first chairperson. In 2008, she was rearrested for allegedly having violated the terms of her pardon and remained in prison for almost two more years. In 2010, she was shortlisted for the European Parliament’s 2010 Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought.

Prior to entering politics, Ms. Midekssa served as a defense attorney and federal judge, rendering numerous court decisions in support of the rule of law and in defense of fundamental constitutional liberties. She drew the ire of the Ethiopian government when she presided as a judge in a high profile corruption case involving the former defense minister, Siye Abraha. Ms. Midekssa released Abraha for lack of evidence, but the government immediately rearrested him and sent him to jail for seven years. The government’s contempt for the rule of law helped motivate Birtukan Midekssa to become active in politics.

She was selected as a Reagan-Fascell Democracy Fellow for 2011-2012 at the National Endowment for Democracy and as a Scholar at Risk Fellow at the W.E.B. DuBois Institute at Harvard University for 2012 – 2013.