Ethiopia
Future uncertain for Ethiopian NGO as press freedoms wanePosted Feb 15 2012
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The Federal Supreme Court hasn’t specified if it will hear the Human Rights Council’s (HRCO) appeal to unfreeze the organization's assets. HRCO is Ethiopia’s oldest and last remaining human rights monitoring non-governmental organization. Without access to all of its assets, the NGO was forced to close nine of 12 offices and cut its staff by 85 percent, reports Human Rights Watch.
The HRCO’s petition for appeal challenges the decision of the Federal High Court to uphold freezing of the organization’s assets according to a Civicus report. The Cassation Bench, the highest agent in Ethiopia’s judicial system, was scheduled on Feb. 3 to resume the HRCO petition hearing, which began on Jan. 18 this year.
The Charities and Societies Agency (CSA), a governmental agency created to regulate The Charities and Societies Proclamation 621/2009 (CSO Proclamation), froze HRCO’s assets in 2009. Under this proclamation, a non-governmental organization may not receive more than 10 percent of its assets from a foreign country. The agency found that HRCO received 90 percent by such sources.
Human Rights Watch was one of five non-governmental organizations based outside of Ethiopia that issued a joint statement expressing concern for the restrictions the CSO Proclamation places on human rights organizations. “The decision of the Supreme Court will be of great significance for the future of HRCO’s vital work and for the wider promotion and protection of human rights in Ethiopia,” read the statement published by a number of organizations, including Amnesty International, ARTICLE 19, CIVICUS, East and Horn of Africa Human Rights Defenders Project (EHAHRDP) and Human Rights Watch.
The Human Rights Council case arrives in the wake of a slew of convictions of domestic and international journalists, actions that have gotten the attention of the international press and human rights organizations. The Ethiopian government has a history of silencing free speech.
Amnesty International’s Ethiopian researcher Claire Beston called the recent convictions “an affront to freedom of expression,” explaining that “individuals who hold different opinions, represent different political parties or attempt to provide independent commentary on political developments, are no longer tolerated in Ethiopia.”
The United Nations also criticized the Ethiopian government for using a 2009 anti-terrorism law to curb freedom of expression in a report published on the United Nations website. Journalists “should not face criminal proceedings for carrying out their legitimate work, let alone be severely punished,” said Frank La Rue, UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of expression. The UN story also reported that 24 additional defendants are scheduled to appear in Ethiopian courts in March 2012 for various charges under the anti-terrorism law.
Among the journalists serving sentences are two Swedes, Martin Schibbye, 31, and Johan Persson, 29. Nicholas Kristof, in his Jan. 28, 2012 New York Times column, wrote that Prime Minister Meles Zenawi was using the sentences to send a message to international journalists: “Don’t you dare mess with me!”
Martin Schibbye’s wife, Linnea Schibbye Steiner, described the poor conditions of the Ethiopian prison to Kristof and put the gravity of the sentence into words: “Eleven years in an Ethiopian prison is equal to life, because you do not survive that long.”
Ethiopia was the third-largest recipient of humanitarian aid in the world in 2009 and received $3.8 billion, reported Business Week using Global Humanitarian Assistance research.