(New York) – A
major global initiative to encourage governments to better manage natural
resource revenues should reject Ethiopia’s bid for membership due to its harsh
restrictions on civil society, Human Rights Watch said today.
The governing
board of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) is expected
to make a decision about Ethiopia’s candidacy at its next meeting, on March 18
and 19, 2014, in Oslo. EITI was founded in 2003 to strengthen governance
by increasing transparency over revenues from the oil, gas, and mining
industries. Its members include countries, companies, and civil society
representatives.
“The Ethiopian government has crushed activist
groups and muzzled the media,” said Lisa Misol, senior business and human rights researcher
at Human Rights Watch. “Ethiopia’s harsh repression of independent voices is
utterly incompatible with this global effort to increase public oversight over
government.”
An earlier
effort by Ethiopia to join the transparency group was rebuffed in 2010 out of
concerns over a draconian 2009 law, still in effect, that sharply limits the
activities of independent groups. Civil society representatives on EITI’s board
said that the law contravened the initiative’s standards that make the free and
active participation of independent organizations a requirement for a
country to join.
The board
deferred the decision, and suggested that it would not reconsider “until
the Proclamation on Charities and Society Law is no longer in place.”
Supporters of
Ethiopia’s membership, including Clare Short, the former United Kingdom
minister who has been the group’s chair since 2011, have recently pressed the
board to overturn its 2010 decision. On February 28, Short publicly endorsed
Ethiopia’s candidacy and criticized those who opposed its membership in an
unprecedented open letter to civil society members of the board. She
argued for loosening the group’s rules and claimed that civil society in
Ethiopia favoured her position, even though non-governmental organizations in the
country cannot risk criticizing the government.
“It’s absurd to
suggest that Ethiopia deserves to join EITI because it has civil society
support after the government has systematically intimidated groups into
submission,” Misol said. “EITI would become a reward for Ethiopia’s effort to
dismantle and silence civil society, providing a perverse incentive for other
governments to do the same thing.”
Ethiopia’s
repressive laws and policies have severely undermined independent activists and
organizations in the country. Many organizations have been forced to greatly
reduce their activities, others engage in self-censorship, and still others
have had to close down. Several of the country’s leading activists have fled
the country due to threats. New government-backed nongovernmental organizations
have formed. One group that supports the government’s drive to join EITI is a
journalism union described as “government-controlled” by the Committee to
Protect Journalists.
The 2009
Proclamation on Charities and Society Law curtails the independence
of non--governmental organizations in Ethiopia, particularly groups that
scrutinize the government. It forbids national organizations from receiving
more than 10 percent of their funds from foreign donors if they engage in human
rights, advocacy, conflict resolution, or governance activities. The law also
bars organizations from activities related to state policy, functioning, and
accountability.
It established
a regulatory body, the Charities and Societies Agency, with broad discretion to
arbitrarily cancel organizations’ registration and to levy fines and criminal
charges against their personnel.
To join EITI,
Ethiopia should be required to repeal or substantially amend the 2009
proclamation to eliminate problematic clauses that limit foreign funding,
restrict certain types of activities, and grant far-reaching powers to a
government agency to regulate activities of independent groups, Human Rights
Watch said. Additional preconditions should be tied to media freedom and
respect for other fundamental rights necessary for open public debate on
natural resource topics.
“Admitting Ethiopia into EITI now would send a terrible signal about
the initiative’s commitment to core principles about the participation of civil
society,” Misol said. “The board should insist on meaningful reforms in Ethiopia so that the
government demonstrates its commitment to the initiative’s principles and rules
before it is admitted.”
By Human Rights Watch
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