Ethiopia's new civil society law (original) (raw)

Reality checks: the state of civil society organizations in Ethiopia

2017

The general literature on the state of civil society organisations (CSOs) in Ethiopia gives the impression that CSOs have been rendered dysfunctional by the restrictive law passed in 2009. While considerable attention has been given to the devastating effects of the CSO law on human rights groups, the successful stories of the overwhelming majority of organisations engaged in development and service delivery have been overlooked. The law does limit the space for CSOs working on human rights and governance and it is legitimate and ethical to challenge the restrictive provisions on constitutional, legal, moral and/or practical grounds. However, it is equally important to recognize the continued operations of numerous CSOs, their contributions to national development priorities, their innovativeness in dealing with sensitive rights issues, the role of donors in supporting CSOs and the responses of the government to the request for a more enabling environment. This paper contains contex...

Reality Checks: The sate of civil society organizations in Ethiopia

The Implication of Charities and Societies Proclamation № 621/2009 for Exercising Freedom of Association in Ethiopia

Background: Though Ethiopian has a long history of associational life, the right to the freedom of association cannot be exercised to the fullest extent possible for various reasons. Objective: The main objective of this study is to analyze the implication of the new charities and societies law (proclamation no. 621/2009) on the freedom of expression, assembly, and association and to assess its practical impacts on the ground. Specifically: 1. To analyze the implication of the new charities and societies law (proclamation no. 621/2009) on the freedom of expression, assembly, and association; 2. To assess the practical impacts of the new charities and societies law (proclamation no. 621/2009) on the ground on the exercise of the freedom of association, assembly and expression. Methods: This study employed mainly a desk review of relevant legal documents . However, in order to supplement the findings from the document review and also in view of assessing the real impact of the CSP, case studies of four charities and societies which are formed under the Ethiopian laws and operating in Ethiopia were also employed. These CSOs were Consortium of Christian Relief and Development Associations (CCRDA), Human Rights Council (HRC), Network of Ethiopian Women’s Associations (NEWA), and Ethiopian Women Layers Associations (EWLA) and these organizations were purposively selected due to their relevance to the case at hand. This study was a cross-sectional study conducted from September - December 2011. Findings: On January 6, 2009 G.C, the Ethiopian government has issued a law – Charities and Societies Proclamation No. 621/2009 – with many controversies regarding its provision on freedom of association and expressions regardless of its constitutional commitments. It then, issued a law that: Restrictions on Domestic CSOs Based on Funding Sources that CSOs with funding level of more than 10%, cannot work on rights; Discrimination on Foreign and Ethiopian Residents’ NGOs that the foreign and Ethiopian resident CSOs are arbitrarily prohibited from engagement in the advancement of human and democratic rights; Limiting Judicial Oversights on Administrative Decisions on CSOs with the establishment of Charities and Societies Agency (CHSA) to implement the same proclamation and this Agency was given a power to make a final decisions regarding the approval, denial, or revoking registration of the associations. Violates the Independence and Privacy of the CSOs as the charities and societies proclamation and regulation issued by the ministry of foreign affairs of Ethiopia provides that “… any society or charitable society that fails to notify the Agency of the time and place of a meeting of its general assembly earlier than seven working days prior to such meeting may be given a written warning ” (17); Imposition of vague and arbitrary criminal sanctions as the CSO law provides that its violation is punishable under the criminal code and by administrative sanctions; The implication of the CSO law for the freedom of association has been discussed in detail starting from the introductory chapter. It is high time to highlight on the implication of the CSO Law for the freedom of expression. Conclusion: In light of the Ethiopian constitutional freedoms and the country’s international obligations of human rights, the current CSO Law has many limitations. Thus, the implication of the CSP of FDRE for the freedom of association, and freedom of assembly can be categorized among the most restrictive laws in the Sub-Saharan African countries. This nature of the Ethiopian CSP can be inferred from its high reporting requirements; restriction on the type of activities to be implemented by CSOs based on their funding sources; the power given to the executive organ of the government which is set to monitor and regulate the engagements of the CSOs; the limit set on access to justice by ruling out the right to appeal for those CSOs getting more than 10% of their fund from abroad. Moreover, most of the organizations operating in the areas of human rights perform their core activities by disseminating information through means such as publications, audio recordings and video recordings. But the Ethiopian CSP limits these core activities of the CSOs/NGOs. These and other restrictions of the law will, inevitably, limit the civic space and thereby damage the positive contributions of the CSOs to the democratization process. The government will and, ultimately, the society will lose the significant contributions of the CSOs. The CSP of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopian has greater potential to create too much loss as it prescribes non-engagement of CSOs/NGOs in the human right activities provided that they receive more than 10% of their funding from abroad. So, it means that the Ethiopian government will not need red tape or contrived measures to deny registration “Ethiopian Resident” or foreign organizations that engage in even minimal human rights activity, or shut them down. Rather, the government may directly and “legally” suppress the activities of these organizations and effectively abandon the protection and promotion of human rights for the foreseeable future. It is crucial that the international community support Ethiopian citizens by speaking out until this law is repealed. While we recognize that the Ethiopian government has the right to enact reasonable regulations governing the activity of NGOs, those laws must be both fair and consistent with Ethiopia’s human rights obligations. Since the enactment of the CSP, the re-registered number of the CSOs has reduced by 57% compared to the number of CSOs/NGOs registered and operating under the previous legal regime. Even those that are re-registered have either changed their names, programs, organizational structures or faced reduction budget and loss of staffs. Many organizations have faced a dilemma of choosing between access to fund visa-vise retention of the organizational purpose/program of working on the advancement of the human rights, justice, conflict resolution, and peace building. Many networks of CSOs/NGOs, which in the wordings of the CSP itself are called as consortiums, have got their membership size significantly reduced. The NEWA, one of the networks/consortiums, has split in to two. Moreover, the power of the executive organ has also been demonstrated in so far as the CHSA itself has reported it has revoked the licenses of five CSOs. Recommendations: Based on the restrictive nature of Ethiopia’s current CSO Law, it is recommended that the Ethiopian government: 1. Revise the CSP Provisions that are found to be restrictive in nature or repeal the existing CSO Law and enact a new law that will be in line with the country’s international human rights obligation; fully in line with its constitution and consistent with humanitarian laws with due regard to Ethiopia’s own context and cultural settings. 2. In addition to this, the government should consider revising its position on restrictions of funding to CSOs working on human rights and conflict issues as this has impeded the contribution of independent CSOs to the advancement of justice, peace building, and human rights work in the country. 3. The government should also expand opportunities for IGAs by these organizations by lifting the requirement that IGAs should always relate to the objectives of the charity. The CSOs should be allowed to engage in IGAs without restriction so long as the income derived from these activities is used to finance their charitable activities, and so long as they keep separate books of accounts for their businesses and pay tax on their gains. 4. The CHSA should re-consider revising the provision of Directive No.2/2011 providing for the dumping of the whole fund mobilized by the consortiums and then letting them wait for the contribution of their constituencies, as far as the total administration cost does not exceed 70% of the fund mobilized. 5. Finally, the CHSA has to organize itself in the regions or delegate its power to the appropriate public office in the regions so that CSOs in regions will not incur unnecessary additional indirect cost for registration and other interactions with the agency.

The Limits of “Good Law”: Civil Society Regulation in South Africa and Ethiopia

Journal of African Law, 2022

At the end of apartheid, the South African government adopted laws regulating civil society that are widely seen as “good” laws: laws designed to encourage and facilitate a thriving civil society sector. In 2019 the Ethiopian government repealed the repressive, decade-old Charities and Societies Proclamation and replaced it with a much more open and permissive regulatory system, also aimed at facilitating a thriving civil society sector. This article compares South Africa's post-apartheid civil society organization (CSO) laws with Ethiopia's 2019 law, to examine the different and overlapping ways in which these regimes attempt to advance the interests of CSOs against an historical background of state oppression. In doing so, it examines what “good” regulation of CSOs constitutes in practice and finds that there are significant limits to the effectiveness of regulatory change in addressing the many, complex problems CSOs face, especially in the wake of political and legal oppression.

Civil society under assault in Ethiopia

Civil society under assault in Ethiopia, 2018

Since the enactment of the Charities and Societies Proclamation 621/2009 in Ethiopia, civil societies were not performing their proper role for the advancement of the country's democracy. The proclamation places excessive restrictions on the work of civil society organizations in the country. This, in turn, makes the public passive to engage in the politics of the country, rather the law gives ultimate power for the government to control the activities of the civil society organizations (CSOs). Furthermore, the law has a devastating impact on the CSOs activities, both in practical sense, it creates restriction on their area of engagement, and exacerbating climate of fear in which they operate. In the nutshell, the proclamation risks the observance and protection of the democratic rights of every person in Ethiopia.

ASSESSMENT OF THE ETHIOPIAN CIVIL SOCIETY LAW IN THE LIGHT OF HUMAN RIGHTS PROTECTION

The objective of this paper is to examine the Civil Societies Law of Ethiopia visa -vis Human rights protection. For this purpose, research products, reports, and laws have been critically analyzed. According to this study, the general articulated objective of the civil societiesìaw is a response to an ever increasing demand for legal norms for the management of civil society organizations. This law is praiseworthy; it can have contributions to ensure the accountability of civil societies, and to establish a uniform civil societiesàdministration. In contrary, the law has certain constraints on the protection of rights. That is, the rights to form association, the right to choose areas of operations, and the freedom of resources possession of the civil societies have been curtained. The law excludes Ethiopian Resident Societies and Foreign Charities from forming associations in the fields that pertain to rights advocacy and democracy. Such exclusion is a legal act of contravening the provision of the federal constitution that guarantees the right of association for any purpose. The law had forced some civil societies to change their areas of operations and to quite their functions. Therefore, to pursue full-fledged protection of human rights, amendment on some provisions the law is imperative.

NGO law in Ethiopia and its Impact

ABSTRACT Statement of the problem: Despite the recently introduced Charities and Societies Proclamation by the government to ensure the constitutionally guaranteed right to the freedom of association and giving support and facilitating the role of the Charities and Societies in the overall development of the peoples of Ethiopia, there continues to be wide spread perception of the threat and insecurity on the parts of the civic society. Considering the indispensable role Civic society plays in the development and democratization process of the country, this study is undertaken to assess the question whether the recently introduced Charities and Societies Proclamation has an impact on growth and engagement areas of Ethiopian and International non-governmental organizations. Rationale: One of the rational is studies measuring the actual impact of the proclamation on the scope of work of the Ethiopian and International non-governmental organizations from legal and economic point of view is missing in the literature. Secondly, the Charities and Society Proclamation law imposes vague and arbitrary criminal sanctions on those who violate its provisions and are punishable under the criminal code as well as by administrative sanctions. However, the impact of the law on criminal prosecution of the officials, members and voluntary is an important legal issue that requires critical investigation. Thirdly, the CSOs/NGOs law has created a state of controversy and lack of trust between the government and the civic society sector. However, the actual perception of the CSOs/NGOs sector towards the law on important aspect of the law is not measured so far and this demands critical investigation. Finally, the law governing the Civic Society is found in different titles and in different proclamations on piece meal basis. This fact opens up for an excellent opportunity to study the legal knowledge of the Ethiopian and International CSOs/NGOs and identifying the gap between the perception and the law. Objective: The main objective of the study is to assess the impact of the charities and society proclamation on the growth and engagement areas of Ethiopian and International non-governmental organizations. Methods: Both primary and secondary data are used for the purpose of this study. Descriptive and statistical tools such as Chi-square tests and independent sample t- test are used in analyzing the data collected. Major findings: One major finding is change of the name of registration of most local NGOs into Ethiopian Resident CSOs/NGOs. Moreover, the research has found out that there is a decrease in the total number of CSOs/NGOs. In addition to this, majority of the respondent’s number of beneficiaries and employee of the non-governmental Organizations have been affected. Almost half of CSOs/NGOs have already been obliged to reduce the number of their branch offices and source of fund. Most organizations have made important evaluation and revision of their establishment documents, area of intervention and made readjustment on their mandate in accordance with the new proclamation to cope up with the impact of the law. There are significant numbers of cancelation of organizations license involved in child development and care. There are also significant numbers of closing down organization due to failure of the organizations to be reregistered as per the new law. Recommendation: Creating an enabling environment for the operation of CSOs/NGOs cannot be guaranteed by the enactment of the law by itself unless it is complemented by reducing the restriction on foreign funding. In this regard it is better to introduce that Ethiopian Resident Charity and Societies can decrease the percentage of their dependence on foreign source of income by 15 percent annually and then ultimately raise 90 percent from local sources.

Negotiating international civil society support: the case of Ethiopia's 2009 Charities and Societies Proclamation

Democratization, 2019

Since 2005, international civil society support has faced increasing resistance around the world. Ethiopia is widely recognized as a key example of this so-called Closing Space phenomenon. With the 2009 Charities and Societies Proclamation (CSP) Ethiopia has established strict regulations on civil society organizations that, in particular, restrict the ability of local associations to make use of foreign funding and the range of activities allowed for foreign (funded) organizations. This paper traces the process of international negotiations that has accompanied the drafting of the CSP and identifies the consequences of these negotiations for international civil society support in the country. Focusing on the interaction between foreign "donors" and the Ethiopian government, it analyzes (a) what precisely these negotiations have been about, (b) to what extent these negotiations have actually influenced the content of the CSP, and (c) how the CSP as finally adopted has actually affected international civil society support in Ethiopia.

Ethiopia's new civil society law (original) (raw)

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