2 July 2008
Addis Ababa — Ethiopia should immediately abandon plans to impose strict government controls and "draconian" criminal penalties on nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), rights groups said on Tuesday, calling on donor governments to speak out publicly against the "de facto criminalization" of most of activities in the country.
The government claims that its draft Charities and Societies Proclamation (draft law) is a benign attempt to promote financial transparency among NGOs and enhance their accountability to stakeholders.
But the rights groups think that is not the case.
"In fact, the law's key provisions are blunt and heavy-handed mechanisms to control and monitor civil society groups while punishing those whose work displeases the government," Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International said in a joint statement Tuesday.
The two groups said the upcoming aid law would affect most of the human rights, rule of law and peace-building work currently being carried out in Ethiopia.
It could also seriously restrict much of the development-related work currently being carried out by some of Ethiopia's key international partners.
"Ethiopia's government has already made meaningful public engagement in governance impossible in many areas by persecuting its critics and cracking down on freedom of expression and assembly," the joint statement quoted Georgette Gagnon, Africa director at Human Rights Watch.
"The clear intention of this legislation is to consolidate that trend by taking the 'none' out of 'nongovernmental' and putting civil society under government control." The law would apply to every NGO operating in Ethiopia except religious organizations and those foreign NGOs that the government agrees to exempt.
Many of the key provisions of the draft law would violate Ethiopia's obligations under international human rights law and fundamental rights guaranteed in its own constitution, including the right to freedom of association and freedom of expression, the groups underscored in the statement.
Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International said they have both produced separate detailed analyses of the draft law.
"This law is not just an assault on independent civil society organizations," said Michelle Kagari, deputy Africa director at Amnesty International.
"It's part of a broader effort to silence the few independent voices that have managed to make their criticisms of the government heard in an increasingly repressive climate."
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it is an unjust excecise of unlimited power against basic human rights. The government ,abusive as it is, is to take a huge step backward by introducing a new system through which it limits and dictates steps of NGO's. it will simply put everything they do in the hands of the govenment paving the way for worse consequences of course. It would rather blow the light out only to deepen the problems and flexing the government's muscle crashing democracy and human rights.it would make it almost impossible for the target organizations to operate under such situations.