Eritrea: renew vital mandate of UN Special Rapporteur

Ahead of the 47th session of the UN Human Rights Coun­cil (21 June-15 July 2021), a group of 35 Eritrean, African and international NGOs urge all states to sup­port the adop­­tion of a resolution extending the mandate of the Special Rap­por­teur on the hu­man rights si­tu­ation in the country. 

As Eritrea completes its first term as a member of the Council (2019-2021), its government shows no willingness to address the grave human rights violations and abuses UN bodies and mechanisms have highlighted or to engage in a serious dialogue with the inter­national commu­ni­ty, including on the basis of the “benchmarks for progress” identified by the Special Rappor­teur in 2019. 

Ongoing violations include widespread impunity for past and ongoing human rights violations, conscription into the country’s abusive national service system, restrictions on the media and media workers, and severe restrictions on civic space. Furthermore, Eri­trean forces are credibly accused of being responsible for grave violations in Ethiopia’s Tigray region, some of which may amount to crimes under international law, since the beginning of the conflict in November 2020. 

The letter details all these and makes the case for continued scrutiny of Eritrea’s human rights situation, through monitoring and public reporting to the Council, by both the Special Rapporteur and the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. 

 

Read the letter in English or in French (version française). 

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Human Rights Defender of the month:SHIMA BHARE

Shima Bhare Abdalla has never known the luxury and comfort of a stable and safe existence inside her country’s borders. When she was 11, her village was attacked and razed to the ground, sending her family and entire neighborhood scattering into an internally displaced People’s Camp, at the start of the Darfur civil war.

That was in 2002. Shima and her family relocated into Kalma refugee camp in Southern Darfur, where, alongside over 100,000 other displaced persons, they had to forge out a living, under the watch and benevolence of the United Nations – African Union Hybrid Operation in Darfur, known as UNAMID. It is here that Shima’s human rights consciousness came to life. She enthusiastically embraced whatever little education she could access under the auspices of the humanitarian agencies operating in the camp, to be able to tell the story of her people’s plight.

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