Mr. Obang Metho is the founder and Executive Director of the Solidarity Movement for A new Ethiopia (SMNE).



 

SMNE is a non-political and non-violent social justice movement of diverse Ethiopians that seeks to unite the many Ethiopian ethnic groups into a solidarity movement that stands together to call the current Ethiopian government to account for myriad allegations of human rights violations.

Mr. Obang Metho has become a spokesperson for justice, freedom, the respect for human rights, reconciliation, good government and ethical economic development in Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa.
His work and speaking engagements include the following venues:
Mr. Obang Metho has testified before the United Nations, the British House of Commons, the European Parliament and the US House Sub-committee on Africa, Human Rights and International Affairs.
He was the opening keynote speaker at the major annual Canadian foreign policy conference of top government policy makers held in Ottawa in 2006, addressing the subject of “Security Concerns in Africa” while utilizing the case of the Anuak as an example of what is going wrong on the continent.
In January of 2007, he was a speaker at the Martin Luther King, Jr Day rally in Atlanta.

Mr. Metho has briefed and met with leaders and officials at the US Department of State, the US Senate, the US House of Representatives and the World Bank. He has also met with their counterparts in Canada, Sweden, Norway, Germany and in the European Union.

He has spoken at colleges and universities such as New York University, Columbia University,University of California (UCLA), Yeshiva University, the University of British Columbia, the University of Winnipeg, the University of Saskatchewan and Bethel University, along with others.

In 2008, Mr. Metho began speaking about putting “humanity before ethnicity” or any other distinction, in order to heal the deep ethnic divisions in the country and bring reconciliation.
The formation of the SMNE is an attempt to organize a diverse solidarity movement around these principles. These principles are: “humanity before ethnicity” and “no one will be free until all are free.”