[8][9] In February 2019, Daniel Bekele, a former Amnesty International prisoner of conscience,[10] director at Human Rights Watch and a frequent critic of the EHRC, was appointed as the new chief commissioner and charged with its reform.

From March 2021 to February 2022, Martin Witteveen, a legal expert in international criminal law, was one of EHRC's managing investigators.

Under Article 35, appointees and investigators of the EHRC have immunity against detention and arrest, except when caught red-handed (in flagrante delicto) for a serious offence, or with the permission of the HoPR or the Chief Commissioner.

[5] In 2019, Amnesty International described the EHRC as lacking independence and serving government interests rather than providing accountability for abuses.

The EHRC received hundreds of complaints monthly in 2019, but could only investigate a small percentage due to its lack of talented staff and budgetary autonomy.

The EHRC's March 2021 report on the Axum massacre "provoked outcry among Ethiopian and Eritrean government supporters", according to The Guardian.

The EHRC called for regional and federal government investigations, judicial proceedings and institutional development to prevent the recurrence of similar events.

The EHRC saw contributing factors to the violence as including unmet popular demand for administrative changes, border conflicts and competition for the use of natural resources.

Looting by Fano, Amhara Liyu Hayl and militia, and ENDF and Eritrean Defence Forces (EDF) soldiers was reported.

Ethnic Tigrayan residents stated that security had improved at the time of the EHRC's visit, but that they remained afraid of attacks and "retaliation for what happened [in] Mai Kadra".

The EHRC quoted the new interim coordinator of Dansha: "Tigrayans live peacefully in the area, but those residents who felt at risk were provided with transportation to their chosen destinations".

[23] In Ullaga, EHRC members visited trenches that had been dug in the primary school grounds by the TPLF in preparation for war since June 2020, according to residents.

[23] On 10 February, the EHRC published a brief report based on its 10–23 January visit to Mekelle and Alamata, Endamekoni and Kukufto in the Southern Zone of Tigray Region, describing the extensive lack of key infrastructure, the division of Tigray into multiple sectors of administrative control, 108 cases of rape officially reported in Mekelle, Adigrat, Wukro and Ayder over two months, a lack of police and health structures where rape victims would normally report the rapes, and summarised cases of child victims of the war and internally displaced people.

[29][30][31] In January 2020, the EHRC gave advice to the HoPR on a draft revision of the Ethiopian Criminal Procedure Code and Evidence Law.

Motivations for the revision of the 1961 code included taking into account the federal Ethiopian system and regional and international treaties.