Ethiopia: A decision by the Fedreal High Court undermines the...

Ethiopia: A decision by the Federal High Court
undermines the survival of prominent national
human rights organisation

04 November, 2011 | PRESS RELEASE - THE OBSERVATORY
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Paris-Geneva, November 3, 2011. The Observatory for the
Protection of Human Rights Defenders, a joint programme of
the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and
the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT), deplores
the decision of the Federal High Court to uphold the freeze
since 2009 by the Charities and Societies Agency (ChSA) of
all assets of the Human Rights Council (HRCO) - formally
known as the Ethiopian Human Rights Council (EHRCO) -
and calls on the Ethiopian Supreme Court to urgently review
this decision in conformity with international standards on
the right to freedom of association.

On October 24, 2011, the Federal High Court

sustained the decision of the ChSA to freeze

HRCO’s assets. The HCRO has decided to

appeal this decision before the Ethiopian

Supreme Court.

In 2009, the Ethiopian authorities adopted the Charities and
Societies Proclamation 621/2009 (CSO Proclamation), which
blatantly restricted the right to freedom of association of civil society
organisations. The Observatory deplored its adoption, which was
governed by the sole objective to silence criticism by NGOs on the
authorities' governance and human rights record.

Indeed, the CSO Proclamation prohibits national human rights
organisations from receiving more than 10 percent of their funding
from foreign sources. Given that national funds are either scarce or
hardly accessible, human rights NGOs are largely dependent upon
foreign donor assistance. Therefore these provisions clearly aim at
weakening if not dissolving independent human rights organisations.
Moreover, many of the CSO Proclamation provisions grant the
ChSA excessive and wide-ranging discretionary powers to intrude
into civil society organisations (CSO) internal affairs. Article 85 of
the CSO Proclamation empowers the ChSA to enter the premises
of any CSO in the absence of a court-ordered warrant, search the
property, take away original documents and interrogate employees.
Article 69 of the CSO Proclamation also states that the ChSA may
deny registration to a CSO “where the nomenclature of the Charity
or Society is country wide and the composition of its members or
place of business do not show the representation of at least five
regional states”.

Such provisions led many Ethiopian CSOs to give up their human
rights-based operations and programmes. Others, like HRCO,
which resolved not to rescind its human rights activities, had to forgo
their foreign funding and to significantly reduce its staff by 80
percent and consequently its human rights operations and
programmes.

Adopted in late 2009, the CSO Proclamation provided for an
interim period of one year during which a CSO could make
amendments necessary to conform to the new legal framework.
However, the ChSA, by a letter written in December 2009, ordered
four private banks to freeze all of HRCO’s assets including its
private bank accounts and sustainability fund. As the ChSA did not
secure a court-ordered warrant permitting it to freeze HRCO’s
assets nor does the CSO Proclamation give the ChSA the authority
to block HRCO’s bank accounts, HRCO decided to challenge the
lawfulness of the freeze before the Federal High Court.

Therefore, the Observatory urges:

the Supreme Court to conform its ruling on international
human rights standards pertaining to freedom of association
binding Ethiopia, such as the International Covenant on Civil
and Political Rights and the African Charter on Human and
Peoples' Rights;

the international community to denounce the CSO
Proclamation as being contrary to international human rights
standards and to call the Ethiopian Government to revoke or
amend the Proclamation in that regard;

the Ethiopian Government to repeal or amend the CSO
Proclamation in conformity with international human rights
conventions and the Ethiopian Constitution;

the Ethiopian Government to comply with the provisions of
the 1998 UN Declaration on the Human Rights Defenders
and to ensure in all circumstances the respect for human rights
and fundamental freedoms in accordance with international
and regional human rights instruments ratified by Ethiopia.

For more information on the impact of the CSO Proclamation,
please consult HRCO's website:

For further information, please contact:

FIDH: Karine Appy / Arthur Manet: + 33 1 43 55 25 18
OMCT: Delphine Reculeau : + 41 22 809 49 39

Courtesy

Ethio Quest News
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