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November 29, 2018
To: Prime Minister, Dr. Abiy Ahmed
CC: Tagesse Chafo, Speaker of the House of People's Representatives
Your excellence,
The following international, regional and national human rights and development organizations write to urge your government to ensure that the proposed Proclamation of Charities and Societies (CSO) complies with regional and international standards relating to human rights and freedom of badociation. The tabling of the bill represents a pivotal moment for addressing the longstanding deficits of existing legislation, creating a robust and resilient civil society and a supportive environment for human rights defenders in Ethiopia. The authorities must ensure that the new text is in line with the guidelines of the African Commission on Freedom of Association and Assembly in Africa, the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights and International Law.
We understand that the bill developed by the Legal Advisory Council and currently being reviewed by the Office of the Attorney General should be tabled in Parliament in the coming weeks. The project addresses long-standing concerns about funding constraints, the intrusive powers of the Civil Society Agency, and the lack of a registration appeal process; Although the current legal framework governing the activities of civil society organizations is significantly improved, we remain concerned that it includes a number of unjustified restrictions on the activities and independence of international civil society organizations and national.
The vague and unduly burdensome limitations of the independence and operational environment of national civil society are a major concern. In particular, the law imposes a licensing regime that requires all civil society organizations in Ethiopia to register with their agency, which eventually allows organizations to be criminally liable if they operate. informally. CSOs already registered under the previous law should re-register. This proposed process, which can last up to four months, is mainly overseen by a government-appointed agency of civil society organizations, with wide discretion to close down orders and freezing the badets of civil society organizations.
In addition, limiting the administrative costs of civil society organizations to 20% of their revenues would compromise their ability to independently determine the range of legitimate activities that they support and prioritize. Given the diversity of initiatives undertaken by CSOs in Ethiopia, such inflexible limitations will unreasonably interfere with the work of many CSOs.
We are also concerned that overly broad provisions would reduce the ability of international civil society organizations to carry out advocacy and lobbying activities and that overly burdensome registration requirements could be invoked to repress their activities and threaten essential rights-based initiatives.
Such measures undermine Ethiopia's commitment to protect, promote and realize the right to freedom of badociation. On several occasions, independent international and regional experts have called on the Ethiopian authorities to amend or repeal the proclamation of civil society organizations, taking into account unjustified restrictions on freedom of badociation.
The announcement of the revision of the laws that have been used in the past to stifle dissent was part of a series of planned reforms announced by your office that rightly deserved the praise of Ethiopians and international actors. As such, we, the undersigned, have looked closely to see whether the revision of the first of these laws, the CSO Proclamation, would reflect the long-standing concerns of many national and international actors. Despite the above-mentioned reservations, we are encouraged by the Legal Advisory Council's project and we are watching with great interest how the draft proclamation will be transferred from the Attorney General's Office to the Council of Ministers for possible approval by the House of Representatives. The process of revising the proclamation of CSOs by the Legal Advisory Council, which will eventually be considered by the House of Representatives, the first of three laws to go through such a process, is an important sign of how different bodies of the Government demonstrate its commitment to review laws in line with international human rights standards before the 2020 elections.
In this period of critical reform, we urge the Ethiopian government to consider these recommendations and take the following actions:
a. Ensure that the majority of CSO Board members come from civil society through a transparent nomination process;
b. Replace the provisions requiring a registration authorization regime with a regime requiring a simple notification;
c. If so, reduce the decision period for CSO registration applications and appeals and ensure that the CSO Agency and the Board provide detailed written reasons for the rejection of applications. ;recording;
re. Include a clear and limited justification of the conditions under which the agency of civil society organizations may investigate and freeze the badets of civil society organizations, and ensure that they are subject to judicial review;
e. Revise the mandatory administrative cost ceiling at 20% of income and replace it with a non-mandatory best practice standard;
F. Ensure that all foreign and national CSOs present in Ethiopia are able to choose the areas in which they will work and enable them to participate in lobbying and advocacy initiatives.
Thanks for your consideration.
Regards,
- ARTICLE 19 East Africa
- Association for Human Rights in Ethiopia (AHRE)
- CIVICUS
- Civil Rights Defenders
- Consortium of Ethiopian Rights Organizations (CERO)
- DefendDefenders (EHAHRDP)
- FIDH, within the framework of the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders
- Front Line Defenders
- Human Rights Watch (HRW)
- PEN International
- Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights (RFKHR)
- World Organization against Torture (OMCT), within the framework of the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders
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