Written evidence submitted by Eritreans
for Human and Democratic Rights UK (EHDR-UK)
Eritreans for Human and Democratic Rights-UK
(EHDR-UK) is a UK based voluntary activist movement working for
the respect of human and democratic rights of Eritreans in Eritrea
and abroad. It is independent of any political persuasion or religious
creed. It was set up in May 2002 in response to the deteriorating
human rights and political situation in Eritrea.
We at EHDR-UK are appreciative of the Foreign
and Commonwealth Office's Human Rights Report 2005 which highlighted
the human rights situation across the globe and the initiatives
the UK Government and its EU partners have taken to support the
respect of human rights in our world today. Indeed, injustice
somewhere is a risk to justice everywhere, and hence human rights
abuse should be an issue of concern to every human being. It is
therefore in this light that we seek to highlight the plight of
Eritreans, whose human rights are continuously being trampled
upon by a regime that is following a brutally dictatorial course
upon which it openly embarked in 2001, heralded by the arrest
of 11 top party and government officials and the shutting down
of all privately owned newspapers. Today Eritrea is the scene
of gross human and democratic rights abuse that spans across every
aspect of Eritrean life. However, we feel that the report has
largely omitted many of these and neglected to include Eritrea
in the list of countries that warrant serious concern owing to
their poor human rights records. We think this is a serious omission.
Over the year covered by the report, there were
a number of new and continuing worrying developments. These include:
— Over 40 young people were killed
in Adi Abieto detention centre in November 2004 when they tried
to escape from forced recruitment into the army;
— There were reports of 161 young Eritreans
being gunned down when they tried to escape from the inhospitable
Wia military training/detention camp in April/May 2005;
— Hundreds of Evangelical and Pentecostal
Christians were detained over the last year from weddings and
other social events, all churches not belonging to the three official
churches remain closed and their activities banned since May 2002.
A number of Muslim teachers were disappeared in 1994 and have
not been heard of since;
— Eritreans continued to flee to the
neighbouring countries in their thousands;
— The number of new Eritrean asylum
seekers in the UK and EU continued to increase;
— The former high ranking ministers
and officials (also known as G11) who were members of parliament
and many others remain in unknown detention centres incommunicado
detention. The Government also started a new wave of re-incrimination
in order to set the scene for their execution. None of them have
been seen in public and there is grave concern about their well
being;
— All the independent journalists remain
incommunicado detention and the country is still without independent
media;
— The rule of law is seriously hampered
in Eritrea and arbitrary arrests without due process are the norm;
— The country's parliament has not
met for a number of years now;
— The Constitution which was ratified
by the Constituent Assembly in 1997 remains unimplemented;
— Political parties are still not allowed
in Eritrea.
The above list and the evidence we are providing
fully demonstrates the need for taking actions that ensure that
the human and democratic rights of every Eritrean are respected
in line with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. We, therefore,
urge that Eritrea be added to the list of "countries of concern".
Furthermore, we urge the Committee to recommend further action
be taken by Her Majesty's Government on the Eritrean authorities
until the human rights situation improves in the country. The
UK with its European partners has already taken some bold steps
against similar states such as Burma and Zimbabwe. We feel that
the situation in Eritrea is at least as bad if not worse than
those states. We urge the Committee to recommend travel bans to
officials of the Government and the ruling party in order to persuade
the Government of Eritrea to adhere to the various human rights
agreements that the nation is a party to. It is our sincere hope
that the evidence presented below will achieve our main aim of
highlighting the gross human and democratic rights abuse in Eritrea.
Noel Joseph
Executive Director
Eritreans for Human and Democratic Rights UK
7 November 2005
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