Meeting for its sixth session, the UN Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR) Working Group undertook its first review of Eritrea on Monday 30 November. The concluding report from the review was adopted on Wednesday 2 December 2009.

For the UPR of Eritrea, the Awate Foundation coordinated the writing of a report by the Eritrean Global Solidarity, the Network of Eritrea Civil Societies-Europe, the Suwera Center for Human Rights, the Eritrean community in Australia, and the Eritrean Australian Mercy Association, supported by the Human Rights House Foundation (HRHF). Further, HRHF and the coalition have written and sent a letter to the government of Eritrea urging the cessation of human rights violations in the country, outlining key violations, and urging the country to accept and implement critical recommendations proposed by the thirty-nine delegations that made statements during the UPR.

Although the list of human rights being violated in Eritrea is extensive, there are certain issues that have gained prominence over others.  To begin with, the rights of civil society are practically non-existent and free press is banned. This is despite the fact that the Constitution of Eritrea explicitly provides for the freedom of speech and expression; freedom of the press and other media; and the right of access to information. Numerous examples abound of journalists and former government officials who have been arrested or imprisoned for expressing their views or opposing the government, the most well-known probably being the group commonly referred to as the G-15 (group of ministers and parliamentarians arrested in 2001 for calling for the implementation of the ratified constitution). When addressing this serious issue of violations, the national delegation stated that nobody is imprisoned solely for expressing their views, but that the issue of press freedom was another matter and something that is “not duplicated in our culture.” The national delegation informed the UPR that some freedom of the press existed in Eritrea before, but that the state was forced to take corrective measures when private newspapers began to chip at the “very fabric of unity and harmony of the Eritrean society.”  The complete elimination of free press was the governments chosen corrective measure.

As presented in the government report, the Transnational Civil Code of Eritrea provides that “every person is free to think and express his ideas” as well as providing for the “rights to form non-profit associations.” In their report, the civil society coalition points out that contrary to these rights provided for in writing, the government does not allow human rights organizations to operate in the country and has gone even further by declaring Eritrean Diaspora-based human rights organizations enemies of the state.  The coalition report explains that the “government has described human rights advocacy as a dangerously naive misplacement of priorities” and that it is “openly hostile to all human rights mechanisms.”  To this claim, the government delegation responded that international NGOs are allowed to operate in the country if they accept national law in place for their operation, but even then, it is not permitted that they be called human rights organizations.

Other serious human rights violations that require immediate attention are extra-judicial arrests and arbitrary detentions.  The coalition report outlines the violations in these areas including: the arbitrary arrest of citizens; the absence of a legal framework for due process; the denial of legal defence; extra-judicial arrests (many of which are of a political nature); the unexplained disappearances and deaths of detainees and prisoners.  The coalition report cites cases where persons were detained or imprisoned and later their families received calls to inform them that the person had died and the body had to be recuperated. The country delegation did not offer any responses to these issues other than to state that those in the G-15 are being treated humanely and that it was a highly sensitive issue that national security and sovereignty of the country.  

The seriousness and frequency of these and other human rights violations serve to demonstrate if only a faint picture of the dire situation in Eritrea.  The review of Eritrea during the sixth session of the UPR resulted in increased awareness of this situation and in the adoption of a report containing 131 recommendations submitted by thirty-nine delegations.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     

Dr. Abraham and his national delegation assured that Eritrea was committed to the promotion and protection of human rights, but coming from a country where citizens have even been denied the right to free elections and where the head of state, Isaias Afwerki, stated that a presidential election would be held in the country in “three or four decades…maybe more,” the realization of this commitment seems dim.

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