Bloomberg

By Jason McLure

Jan. 6 (Bloomberg) — Ethiopia’s parliament ratified a law that critics say will prevent groups from promoting human rights and democracy in the Horn of Africa country, strengthening the government’s hand to crack down on dissent.

The so-called “Proclamation for the Registration and Regulation of Charities and Societies” was passed today by a vote of 327 to 79 in Ethiopia’s parliament. The 547-member legislative body is dominated by members of Prime Minister Meles Zenawi’s Ethiopian Peoples’ Revolutionary Democratic Front, which has 481 seats.

Zenawi’s party, which has ruled Ethiopia since 1991, backed the law even after Western donors, domestic civil society organizations and members of Ethiopian opposition parties objected. They argue the legislation aims to quash dissent.

“This law goes far beyond any normal effort to regulate civil society,” said Leslie Lefkow, a researcher in the Africa division of New York-based Human Rights Watch. “It’s really an instrument of repression.”

Under the new plan, any charity that promotes ethnic gender and religious equality; human rights; democracy; or conflict resolution and receives more than 10 percent of its funding from overseas, will be banned. Organizations that advocate rights for children and the disabled or promote “the efficiency of the justice and law enforcement services” will also be outlawed unless they source more than 90 percent of their revenue inside Ethiopia.

Blanket Ban

Since nearly all non-governmental organizations, or NGOs, that work in these areas rely on foreign funding, the law is tantamount to a blanket ban, political activists said.

“Ninety-five percent of these organizations will not survive under this legislation,” said Lidetu Ayalew, an opposition member of parliament, during a debate on the law on Dec. 24.

Ethiopia’s government says the new law is needed to regulate the country’s more than 3,800 NGOs. It also argues that it’s the role of the state, rather than foreign-backed organizations, to protect human and democratic rights.

“We need social development,” said Berhanu Adelu, chief of Zenawi’s Cabinet, in a forum on the new law on Dec. 24. “We invite NGOs to do this work, but it is not their role to protect the rights of citizens. That is the role of government. It’s an internal issue.”

The government also disputes claims that the law is intended to silence critics or that groups will close as a result.

‘Clearly Specified Duty’

“No NGOs will be closed as a result of this,” Justice Minister Berhanu Hailu said in an interview on the sidelines of the forum on Dec. 24. “They just have to raise funds locally. This is not a closing of political space. We are not undermining civil society in Ethiopia, but their duty area is clearly specified.”

The U.S. Embassy in Addis Ababa said the law “appears to restrict civil society activities and international partners’ ability to support Ethiopia’s own development efforts.”

“We are concerned that this law may restrict U.S. government assistance to Ethiopia, particularly on promoting democracy and good governance, civic and human rights, conflict resolution and advocacy for society’s most vulnerable groups,” the embassy said in an statement read to Bloomberg.

Amnesty International, the London-based human rights organization, said that while the government had provided assurances that the law was intended to regularize non- governmental activity, it appeared to have emerged out of state fears about political control.

‘Increased Repression’

Those fears “manifested as increased repression of civil society activity after the contested 2005 elections and continue to severely limit space for civil society as Ethiopia heads toward elections in 2010,” Amnesty said in an e-mail today.

Government opponents accused the state of rigging the May 2005 elections, sparking protests in Addis Ababa and other cities. A judicial inquiry after the election concluded that government security forces had killed 193 opposition supporters in the unrest.

In October and November of 2008, the government arrested 15 members of the Oromo Federalist Democratic Movement, an opposition party, on suspicion of belonging to a separatist group. Last month, Birtukan Mideksa, the country’s leading opposition politician, was arrested and jailed for life after a dispute with the government over a pardon agreement that had freed her in 2007.

Rights Monitor

Among the NGOs likely to be banned is the Ethiopian Human Rights Council, or EHRCO, a non-profit organization that has issued more than 140 reports detailing summary executions, disappearances and unlawful detentions of Ethiopians over the past 17 years.

More than a dozen of the group’s staff and members were arrested in the wake of Ethiopia’s disputed 2005 elections, during which EHRCO ran voter education programs, Yoseph Mulugeta, the group’s secretary-general, said in an interview

About 99 percent of the 1,500-member group’s 4 million birr ($400,000) annual budget comes from foreign sources, including the U.S. based National Endowment for Democracy, Canada’s overseas aid agency, and the embassies of European governments.

As a result of the law, many of the group’s 60 investigators and administrators across the country have been notified they’re likely to lose their jobs.

“Who watches when the government violates human rights?” Mulugeta said. “In many countries the government is the biggest violator of human rights. There needs to be independent watchers.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Jason McLure in Addis Ababa via Johannesburg at pmrichardson@bloomberg.net.
—————————–
Ethiopian Parliament Approves Law Criminalizing Many NGO Activities
VOA
By Peter Heinlein
Addis Ababa
06 January 2009

Ethiopia’s parliament has overwhelmingly approved a law that will sharply restrict the activities of most civil society groups. The law has been the target of scathing criticism from opposition parties, rights groups and many foreign governments, including the United States.

The ruling Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Party used its massive parliamentary majority to push through a law that gives the government broad powers over foreign funded non-governmental organizations.

The so-called Charities and Societies Proclamation prohibits any group receiving at least 10 percent of its funds from abroad from promoting democratic or human rights, the rights of children, or equality of gender or religion. Violators could face stiff fines and sentences of up to 15 years in prison.

Defending the bill in parliament, EPRDF whip Hailemariam Desalegn argued that any group advocating democracy and human rights should be run by Ethiopians, who should have control over the expenditure of funds.

Minister for cabinet affairs Berhanu Adelo, a top adviser to Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, said Ethiopia needs NGOs to help with social development. But he said it is not the job of NGOs to protect the rights of citizens. That, he said, is the government’s job.

Critics say the law effectively gives Ethiopia’s increasingly authoritarian government a large say in the affairs of as many as 3,000 charities and civil society groups with a combined budget of $1.5 billion a year, much of which goes to promote open society and multi-party democracy initiatives.

Opposition leaders were blistering in their criticism of the bill. Temesgen Zewde of the Unity for Democracy and Justice Party, whose party leader was imprisoned for life last week after a spat with the ruling party, called the bill part of a government effort to create a one-party state.

“This is really a domination agenda, a single party agenda, all the other stuff is simply window dressing. The agenda is to stifle these voluntary public movements that are known to assist the democratic process, the situation of human rights, and all other advocacies are vital and necessary,” he said. “They just don’t want to see this. The EPRDF cannot survive in that kind of environment.”

Another opposition leader, Dr. Beyene Petros, says the new law will effectively silence those capable of participating in the democratization of Ethiopia.

“It is totally consciously designed to undermine and restrict the role of civil society, because the ruling party is determined to advance the cause of revolutionary democracy and part of the Communist order that is going to be implemented in this country for the coming 30-40 years without anybody looking or criticizing or having any idea about what is going on. So the idea is to undermine the role of civil society,” he said.

The United States and other western governments have voiced deep concern about the effects of the new law. The Bush administration sent its top human rights and democracy official, assistant secretary of state David Kramer to Addis Ababa twice over the past six months to discuss the bill with top government officials.

A U.S. embassy spokesperson Tuesday said the Charities and Societies Proclamation appears to restrict civil society activities and the ability of international partners to support Ethiopia’s own development efforts.