ESAT News (June 27, 2017)
Over 1000 civic societies were forced to shut down following the 2009 Charities and Societies Proclamation (CSP), a law which among others restricts NGOs that receive more than 10% of their financing from foreign sources from engaging in human rights and advocacy activities.
The Ethiopian regime came up with the restrictive law after a landslide victory by the opposition in the 2005 elections. The regime accuses civic societies of helping the opposition but the NGOs say they were merely engaged in sensitizing people about elections and democratic rights.
The Charities law came under attack by international rights advocates for its restrictive nature. Civic societies in Ethiopia rely mostly on foreign donors to run their operations but the law limits financing from foreign sources to 10% of the total funds.
A study conducted by an Ethiopian lawyer, Debebe Hailegebriel reveals that there were over 3000 civic societies prior to the decree, but about a 1000 of them have quit operations following the proclamation.
He told local media that the figure is even low if one considers only those charities with operation life span of over one year.
The law has particularly targeted civic societies that work on democracy, human rights and civic education, effectively rendering the nation without a viable civic society.
In Ethiopia, a report by Carnegie Endowment for International Peace said in May that “authorities have pushed NGOs from rights-based efforts to service delivery activities and imposed onerous funding limitations. Targeted repression in the name of counterterrorism has further stifled civic activism, and the government is increasingly relying on emergency powers to suppress growing rural dissent.”