Ethiopia: EPRP denounce new repressive law
The law has been twice revised since May 2008 but it has become more repressive each time. It is before the rubber stamp parliament and it will for sure be adopted as the Meles Zenawi regime has ordered it should be. The Charities and Societies proclamation that will set up the all powerful and arbitrary Charities and Societies Agency is aimed at banning NGOs working on human rights issues in Ethiopia (women's, children's, disabled person's rights, etc...)
Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Party (EPRP)
October 15 2008
EPRP DENOUNCES NEW REPRESSIVE LAW TO BE PROCLAIMED BY THE REGIME
The law has been twice revised since May 2008 but it has become more repressive each time. It is before the rubber stamp parliament and it will for sure be adopted as the Meles Zenawi regime has ordered it should be. The Charities and Societies proclamation that will set up the all powerful and arbitrary Charities and Societies Agency is aimed at banning NGOs working on human rights issues in Ethiopia (women's, children's, disabled person's rights, etc...)
The totalitarian regime of Meles Zenawi is, through this law, actually banning NGOs that receive 10% foreign funding and those being financed by Diaspora Ethiopians from being active in the human rights field. The Agency is empowered to deny registration and act with impunity to regulate and sanction. Other countries have laws that define the functioning of NGOs but none have such repressive laws as those envisaged by the Meles regime. The aim and objective of the repressive regime is evident. As far as NGOs involved in development work it wants its Tigrean TDA and the bodies controlled by the spouse of Meles to be the sole active bodies to receive foreign funding. On the other hand, the regime that is accused of gross human rights violations and of committing atrocities and genocide wants to close its doors to bodies that may expose its criminal activities and violations. Independent civil organizations (Teachers, women, etc) have been banned and then cloned as State controlled associations. The Free Press has been hounded and mostly muzzled while the field has been left free for pro-regime newspapers masquerading as "free". In the Ogaden and other insurgency-affected areas, the regime continues to commit gross human rights violations. There are close to 35,000 political prisoners, torture is widely practiced, summary executions and disappearances common. The human rights record of the regime is dismal and through the Charities and Societies law it is out to cover its tracks and pursue its anti people and illegal actions.
The EPRP condemns the so called Civil Society Organizations (CSO) law and calls on those governments giving aid to his repressive regime to raise their voice against the proclamation and to desist from aiding it.