Kassa Guchero, a farmer in Gamo Gofa zone of southern regional state, was one of the beneficiaries of a civil society organization (CSO) when he found himself in dire straits with his local Kebele administration.

Like many farmers in his area, he made his livelihood growing bananas until 2006 when he and close to 50 other farmers were told that their land was needed for investment.

The farmers did not have the financial means to hire lawyers, so they went to the Ethiopian Human Rights Council, a 27-year-old nonprofit that provides free legal assistance to indignant clients.

The Council, one of many civil society organizations operating in the country at that time, represented the farmers in court and won the case for them to keep their farmland.

For almost two decades since 1991, CSOs found the regulatory environment in Ethiopia relatively enabling. The period saw a significant increase in the number of civil society organizations operating in the country.

The 2009 Charities and Societies Proclamations, however, tightened the laws that regulated these organisations. The purported reasons the government advanced in changing the regulations were to curb growing foreign influence and to curtail CSOs from meddling in the democratic process, according to Yonas Birmeta (PhD), a lecturer at Addis Abeba University on human rights for 15 years.

It introduced three new classifications of charities and societies - Ethiopian charities, Ethiopian resident charities and international and foreign charities.

The law stated that only Ethiopian charities could engage in advocacy for human rights issues, including advocating for the rights of children, women and the disabled. It also mandated that they obtain 90pc of their funding from local sources.

Charities that received over 10pc of their funding from foreign sources were recognized as foreign charities and were prohibited from working in human rights advocacy.

The limitations were not only limited to CSOs working in human rights. The law introduced a 30pc administrative expenses cap limit and provided a new definition of administrative expenses, which charities said was too broadly interpreted. There were also limitations to the fundraising activities that can be engaged in by CSOs.

“At the time, Ethiopian charities were not in a position to secure 90pc of their funding from local sources,” said Yonas.

Woubshet Kasawu, board member of the Human Rights Council, which laid off 80pc of its staff and closed nine of its offices after the 2009 law, agrees.

“Many Ethiopian charities, as a result, were forced to abandon working in the area of human rights,” he said. “The few that stuck to working in human rights were forced to make cutbacks for lack of funding.”

The law garnered criticism from international human rights groups as well as local activists, accusing the government of trying to weaken the role of civil societies in the political process and the protection of human rights.

The arrival of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed (PhD) in early 2018 saw the promise of reform and opening up of the political space. Part of his reform agenda was the amendment of the 2009 Charities and Societies Proclamations, the anti-terrorism and media proclamations.

Last June, a 13-member Justice & Legal Advisory Council was formed under the Office of the Attorney General to recommend amendments to laws considered regressive and restructure democratic institutions. A working group within the Advisory Council began drafting a proposal to amend the Charities and Societies Proclamations in August 2018.

“The existing law was very controversial. We had a lot of academic research and reports showing this,” said Abdulatif Kedir, acting head of the secretariat at the Advisory Council.

One of the major issues the working group debated was whether to recommend the amendment of certain provisions or the enactment of a new proclamation.

“The law in place had fundamental definitions and core issues that had to be changed. Thus we thought a new law was better,” said Abdullatif.

After a draft was drawn up, the working group held discussions with representatives of local civil society organisations, community leaders and the media.