The Charities and Societies Proclamation regulating the establishment and functioning of civil society organisations, passed in 2009, has crippled civil society. The law is extremely restrictive and heavily curtails the work of independent human rights organisations. It prohibits foreign organisations from carrying out human rights work and establishes tight forms of government control over Ethiopian organisations. Ethiopian organisations are forbidden to receive more than 10% of their funding from foreign sources, in a country where local funding sources are virtually non-existent. Following the passing of the law, the bank accounts of the Ethiopian Human Rights Council were frozen.

As a result of this new legislation many groups did not re-register as human rights organisations and a significant number of HRDs fled the country for fear of arrest and attack. The very few remaining human rights groups had to dramatically cut their activities and presence on the ground, which significantly affected their capacity to document and report on human rights violations. For instance the Human Rights Council (formerly known as Ethiopian Human Rights Council) had to reduce the number of offices from 12 to 3 as of April 2011 and the Ethiopian Lawyer Association was obliged to limit 5 members of staff, instead of the previous 14.

The law also grants the government-appointed Charities and Societies Agency (ChSA) wide-ranging discretionary powers, including the power to refuse or withdraw registration with no judicial oversight. Any breach of the draft law is punishable under criminal law.

The 2009 Anti-Terrorism Proclamation also affects the work of human rights defenders. The government has used the very broad definition of the legislation to accuse peaceful and legitimate opposition, as well as journalists, of encouraging terrorism. Independent press is barely able to function as independent journalists continue to face harassment and arrest, working in a climate of fear. From June to September 2011 six journalists were arrested under the country anti-terrorism legislation, by which suspects can be held up to four months without charge.

A number of violations were reported to have occurred before and during parliamentary elections in May 2010. Citizens were intimidated by government officials and media was unlawfully restricted ahead of the vote. It is reported that pressure include government threats of withdrawing state assistance to voters in Addis Ababa if citizens did not vote for the ruling party, as well as harassment, beating and detention of members of the opposition parties.

Outspoken trade unions have also faced attacks. In 2009 the Supreme Court upheld a decision to dissolve the Ethiopian Teachers Association (ETA) and hand over its assets to a rival union formed by the government. This action followed years of harassment and detention of union members. Furthermore, HRDs communications by phone and email are routinely under surveillance and the authorities seek to control information by blocking access to the websites of human rights organisations.