Rights groups urge pressures on Ethiopia over repressive NGOs draft law

July 1, 2008 (NEW YORK) – Two of the main rights groups in the world urged donor governments to denounce the heavy mechanisms of control and draconian penalties that Ethiopian government plans to impose of nongovernmental organisations.

Ethiopia’s federal government says that the new draft law on Charities and Societies Proclamation is a benign attempt to promote financial transparency among NGOs and enhance their accountability to stakeholders.

Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International called on donor governments to speak out publicly against the de facto criminalization of most of the human rights, rule of law and peace-building work currently being carried out in Ethiopia.

The rights groups underline that 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.

The draft law could also seriously restrict much of the development-related work currently being carried out by some of Ethiopia’s key international partners, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International said.

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.

Ethiopia is one of the world’s most aid-dependent countries. Ethiopia’s key bilateral donors, however, have largely maintained a public silence in the face of the government’s worsening human rights record.

The United States and Britain, which collectively provide Ethiopia with more than $600 million in foreign assistance each year, are the Ethiopian government’s most important donors.

“Both governments have consistently failed to speak out publicly against longstanding patterns of repression and human rights violations including war crimes committed by Ethiopian armed forces in Somalia,” the statement said.

Several donor governments have had intensive private discussions with Ethiopian officials in an attempt to convince the government to abandon the most repressive aspects of the draft law. These efforts, however, have failed to improve many of the most worrying provisions of the law according to the latest draft released in late June.

“Ethiopia’s bilateral partners have consistently failed to speak out publicly against severe patterns of government-sponsored human rights violations,” said Georgette Gagnon, Africa director at Human Rights Watch. “Their policy of silence has had the effect of helping to embolden the Ethiopian government to make further assaults on human rights, exemplified by the draft NGO law.”

Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have both produced separate detailed analyses of the draft law

(http://www.hrw.org/pub/2008/africa/HRW.NGO.Law.Analysis.pdf).